29 January 2008 ThisIsNorthScotland
A Prison needle exchange project aimed at reducing the spread of infection may be piloted in Aberdeen in a UK first.
Prison and public health chiefs hope that the scheme, if it is supported and put in place, will reduce hepatitis C and other infections commonly contracted through sharing dirty needles and syringes among prison inmates.
The suggestion for the pilot, where clean needles will be provided and dirty ones disposed of, has been highlighted as part of a first year progress report on "Scotland's Action Plan for Hepatitis C", introduced by the Scottish Executive in September 2006.
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service stressed that nothing had been decided yet.
"The focus is purely on harm reduction and reducing the amount of transferred diseases. We need to be pragmatic about this. This is not about making it easier for prisoners to take drugs."
He said that in a recent prisoner survey around 100 respondents, about 3%, said they injected in prison and around 80 of those shared needles.
The spokesman said Aberdeen was a logical place to pilot the scheme as prison staff were at the forefront of working with prisoners and drugs.
Dr Maria Rossi, consultant in public health medicine for NHS Grampian, said that needle exchanges had proved valuable in communities and that they could prove useful in the context of re-ducing the spread of infectious diseases in prison.
"A lot of footwork needs to be done to show that it can be effective in a prison context as well. It must be properly evaluated."
Julian Winter, a patient advocate of the charity, The Hepatitis C Trust, was cautious but optimistic.
"It sounds like a positive step forward. If it is likely to reduce instances of Hepatitis C, then, from our point of view, it is a good thing."
