Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC): Evaluation Report 2

The Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) evolved out of the NSW Parliamentary Drug Summit in 1999, which supported an 18-month trial of a medically supervised injecting centre, recognising that its operation may have both public health and public order benefits. In 1999, the Joint Select Committee into Safe Injecting Rooms for the Parliament of NSW, identified potential public health benefits of the supervised injecting facility as including: reduced morbidity and mortality associated with drug overdoses, reduced transmission of blood borne infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, increased access to health and social welfare services, and contact with a marginalised injecting drug using population. Possible public amenity benefits of the service were: a reduction in street based injecting and a reduction in the number of needles and syringes discarded in public places. Specifically, the Government’s objectives in establishing the MSIC were to decrease drug overdose deaths; provide a gateway into treatment; reduce problems of discarded needles and public injecting.  A summary of the Sydney MSIC service model, internal management protocols and data management system can be found in the Interim Evaluation Report No.1: Operations and Service Delivery.