‘Does anyone know where to get fits from around here?’ Policy implications for the provision of sterile injecting equipment through pharmacies in Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the factors that influence injecting drug users' (IDUs) choice of outlet, and in particular why some IDUs might prefer to use pharmacies. Greater understanding of the influences on this choice will contribute to more sophisticated policy and programme responses for blood-borne virus prevention and for health and wellbeing programmes for people who inject drugs. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 IDUs about their experiences of accessing injecting equipment from pharmacies that participated in the governmentsponsored pharmacy needle and syringe scheme. Results: A range of factors influenced participants' decisions about equipment access. The advantages of the pharmacy scheme access included convenience, relative anonymity, increased positive feelings of self-worth when accessing equipment from pharmacies where they had a good relationship with staff, less police surveillance and access to a greater range of equipment than available in publicly funded Needle and Syringe Programmes. The disadvantages of pharmacy access included the cost of equipment and complications related to methadone dosing and equipment access. Conclusion: Pharmacy access to injecting equipment is highly valued by IDUs. The results of this study direct attention to several elements of programme and policy in the area that would increase access to equipment from pharmacies relating to cost, need for exchange, police surveillance practices, out-of-hours access and anonymity.

Impact of current and scaled‐up levels of hepatitis C prevention and treatment interventions for people who inject drugs in three UK settings—what is required to achieve the WHO's HCV elimination targets?

“…This highlights the need to initiate strategies for increasing the coverage of OST and HCNSP in these and similar settings, which should be conducted in close consultation with service users. Evidence shows the benefits of extending opening hours and promotion of secondary distribution via peers or vending machines for increasing coverage . Additionally, better monitoring at the local district level is needed to identify lower coverage settings.…”

Why are we still waiting? Views of future-focused policy and the direction of the profession from dissatisfied recent pharmacy graduates

“…Equally the role of policy in eliciting response from the community pharmacy sector has not been well studied, except in the area of drug misuse where, from a policy perspective, support from government, regulatory bodies and professional associations may be important catalysts to pharmacists’ participation in programmes (Myers et al , 1996). In this field at least, there are clear policy implications for service provision (Treloar et al , 2010) and supporting implementation (Chong et al , 2010). There is general commentary on policy approaches and their broad impact on the sector (Hermansyah et al , 2018; Dineen-Griffin et al , 2020) and dialogue around changes in ownership legislation and models and the impact of this on public policy (Ottewill and Magirr, 1999).…”

Is point of access to needles and syringes related to needle sharing? Comparing data collected from pharmacies and needle and syringe programs in south‐east Sydney

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