The Government has been urged to immediately begin planning for a permanent supervised injection facility in Cork.<\/p>\n
The issue was raised in the D\u00e1il this week by Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice, who called on Jennifer Murnane O\u2019Connor, minister of state for public health, wellbeing and the national drugs strategy, to act without delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast month, I asked the minister about a supervised injection facility for Cork, and was told that no new safe injection facilities would be considered until after the 18-month pilot in Dublin was completed,\u201d said Mr Rice.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cThis pilot won\u2019t be completed until the middle of next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
He referenced a recent UCC study showing that there are 859 problem drug users in Cork City, and that an average of 35 people are dying in the city each year from drug use.<\/p>\n
\u201cCork cannot wait for pilot schemes and reports,\u201d said Mr Rice.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are dying in our city because the proper supports are not in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he had \u201cserious concerns\u201d about the minister\u2019s suggestion that a mobile unit could be deployed in Cork.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is certainly a place for mobile units, but as the second-largest city in Ireland, Cork needs a dedicated centre.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cEddie Mullins, CEO of Merchants Quay Ireland, recently told The Echo that a mobile unit would be quite ineffective.<\/p>\n
\u201cA centre provides a place in which aftercare is provided and people are monitored; this simply cannot be done in a van.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, a prime location for a supervised centre has already been identified \u2014 the proposed integrated inclusion health hub for homeless people in Cork City.<\/p>\n
\u201cCo-locating a supervised injection facility with other inclusive healthcare services should be the objective of our health services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork on that hub must begin now so that the design and planning phases can incorporate this essential service.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf the minister continues to dither on a decision for Cork, this opportunity will be lost.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Mr Rice said a safe injection facility would reduce drug use on the streets and in parks and decrease drug-based litter such as discarded needles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safe injection facility in Dublin has been a huge success and a similar facility is urgently needed in Cork,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ms Murnane O\u2019Connor said: \u201cEverything is being assessed. The evaluation of what is happening with drugs around the country is being looked at.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are assessing every opportunity here, working within the department, the HSE, and, as the deputy knows, our drugs task forces, which do huge work within our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has been urged to immediately begin planning for a permanent supervised injection facility in Cork. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[15607,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-154835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cork-health","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}