Tuesday, 31 October 2023

Richmond medically supervised injecting facility

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:35): (326) My question is to the Minister for Mental Health. Minister, last Thursday a man walked out of the safe injecting room in North Richmond and was found unresponsive on the footpath outside the primary school. Minister, what is the government’s duty of care to the user and the community?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:35): I thank Ms Crozier for her question. Of course it is important, I think, that we all reflect and remember what drove the calls for a medically supervised injecting room in North Richmond in the first place, and that is literally decades of harm associated with drug use in the area – deaths, sirens and lights. We know that the facility has managed since its inception more than 6500 overdoses and saved at least 63 lives. It has taken pressure off local hospitals in that area, and it has reduced ambulance call-outs in the area. Of course, importantly –

Nicholas McGowan: On a point of order, President, answers are required to be factual. The minister has stated that the injecting room has saved 63 lives. I ask for the factual basis for that assertion.

The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. You have no evidence that it is not factual.

Ingrid STITT: As I was saying, the government’s focus in providing a medically supervised injecting room in the North Richmond community is in response to the enormous amount of harm in that community from having had no such health response and health support available. I think it is very important to also acknowledge that when people are using the medically supervised injecting room we are actually in a position to be able to provide that wraparound support and offer people a pathway out of addiction through the additional services.

Ms Crozier has asked about a particular incident that occurred outside of the medically supervised injecting room. I am not briefed on that individual matter, but what I will say is that the government does not resile from the fact that this facility is doing what it was intended to do, and that is save lives and make sure that there are fewer overdoses in the streets of North Richmond, that people are getting the medical care that they need and, in addition to that, that people are being provided with wraparound supports for a range of other issues to get them on a pathway to recovery and to turn their lives around. I for one, as Minister for Mental Health, will not participate in stigmatising people that are in that situation.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:38): President, I am sure you will deal with it later, but the minister did not answer the question around duty of care, but she did refer in her answer to the number of ambulance call-outs having reduced. Minister, five emergency vehicles, including four ambulance crews, were in attendance dealing with this man who was found unresponsive on the footpath after he had left the injecting room and come and collapsed on the footpath, so he was inside using drugs and then came outside and collapsed. So I ask: in the last six months how many ambulances have been called to North Richmond to attend episodes like this or other overdoses within the vicinity of the injecting room?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:39): I thank Ms Crozier for her supplementary question. I think that I have already indicated that there have been fewer ambulance call-outs as a result of the facility being stood up in North Richmond. That is an undisputed fact. We have also seen a declining trend in opioid overdose presentations at St Vincent’s, which is the closest emergency department to the facility. We have not seen this trend in other comparable Melbourne hospitals, so I think that Ms Crozier is putting her –

Members interjecting.

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, President, I cannot hear the minister because of the constant interjection coming from Mr McGowan over there. He has constantly interjected. I cannot hear the minister’s answer. She deserves to be heard in silence.

The PRESIDENT: Interjections are disorderly. Minister, with 17 seconds, uninterrupted.

Ingrid STITT: As I was about to say, Ms Crozier has taken an example and is seeking to conflate that into a range of other diversionary conversations about these matters. I will not put my feet into the shoes of the first responders that dealt with this particular individual. They are best placed to do that.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:41): I move:

That the minister’s response be taken into consideration on the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to.