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. 2024 Mar 1;21(3):289.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph21030289.

Community Pharmacy Needle Exchange Programme: What Can Analysis of the Data Tell Us about the Changing Drug Market in Ireland?

David S Evans  1 , Norma Harnedy  2 , Eamon Keenan  1   3
Affiliations

Community Pharmacy Needle Exchange Programme: What Can Analysis of the Data Tell Us about the Changing Drug Market in Ireland?

David S Evans et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Community Pharmacy Needle Exchanges are a harm reduction measure that have been established in a number of countries to provide access to sterile injecting equipment for people who inject drugs (PWID). To ensure that they are meeting needs, it is important to monitor the use of the services. This study aimed to determine patterns of needle distribution and return in community pharmacies in Ireland over time. The number of pharmacies, needle packs, clean needles and returned packs was obtained from the Health Service Executive (HSE) Planning and Business Information Unit (PBI). Yearly totals were calculated to show patterns from 2015 to 2022. There has been an 18% decline in the number of pharmacies providing the service since 2015, with a 19% decline in the number of packs provided and a 21% decline in the number of packs returned. The proportion of packs returned was 23% in 2015 and 18% in 2022. There has been a 16% decline in the number of sterile needles provided and a 6% reduction in the average number of needles per individual since 2017. Declining needle use and low rates of used needle return (against a backdrop of large numbers of PWID that have not significantly reduced over time) suggest that there is a need to investigate if community pharmacies in Ireland have the scope to improve their harm reduction impact. This raises questions in terms of the need to both improve and adapt the service against a backdrop of changing drug markets. Key recommendations include the need to review the harm reduction services employed by participating pharmacies when providing new equipment and organising the return of used equipment.

Keywords: Ireland; harm reduction; needle exchange; substance use.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Community Health Organisation areas in Ireland (CHO).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of pharmacies providing programme 2015–2022.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of unique individuals using programme 2015–2022.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proportion of packs returned (2015–2022) *. * 2016 = mean of 2015 plus 2017, as data are missing.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Average number of needles per individual per month (2015–2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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