I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for allowing me to raise the need for the Minister for Health to ensure that the needle exchange and drug maintenance clinic at Baggot Street Hospital, Dublin 4 is carried out in such a way as to protect the residents of the area and their property from harassment, intimidation and general nuisance.
The AIDS Resource Centre at 19 Haddington Road was opened about four years ago to prevent the spread of AIDS among drug users. In August 1992 the Eastern Health Board established a clinic there to provide primary health care to those who might be HIV positive or were in danger of becoming HIV positive. Prior to September 1992 about 60 people were receiving methadone treatment at the clinic but by October 1992 the number had increased to 160 and by Christmas the number was 200. The increase in numbers has caused problems in the area.
I will describe the kind of area Baggot Street is. It is a closely knit residential and commercial community. The residential community is mostly comprised of elderly people and a number of senior citizens. I propose to share my time with Senator Manning as he is a resident in the area and lives a short distance from the clinic about which I am speaking. He will outline the difficulties residents have experienced. I wish to explain the difficulties the business community have experienced in the area.
Businesses on Baggot Street include the usual commercial businesses such as banks and shops but there are also a number of service shops such as restaurants, cafes, dry-cleaners and so on. Since the numbers increased at the clinic, they have suffered severe harassment. Going around the area last week I discovered that a number of cafes and restaurants have to employ security personnel between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The clinic has enticed many undesirables into the area including people who might not need or be dependent on methadone treatment. I have been informed by the gardaí that a number of drug pushers have been found in the area and that is a serious cause of concern. The problem was not helped when the hospital authorities opened a door at the side of 19 Haddington Road. It is a small lane about the width of the Press Gallery in the Chamber and people receiving treatment have to go in that way.
I received a number of representations on this matter and I will read one from Dr. Walter Halley. I discussed this matter with him this afternoon and he has given me permission to quote his representations. He said:
Many of my patients have been harassed and several of them in recent times have been mugged. They are all elderly, usually female. I would also like you to note that I have been personally threatened and have many problems with some of these people arriving in my surgery and on several occasions I have difficulty getting them out.
He went on to refer to the problems that the shopkeepers are experiencing and then mentioned the needle exchange:
I have on several occasions recently regarded with great caution deposited needles and syringes with physeptone bottles, some of them half full. Surely this is totally unacceptable in an area which is beside a large junior school.
They are the problems residents in the area are experiencing. I became aware of them in February when the numbers increased to 200. I attended a number of meetings organised by the residents and the business people. At my invitation the chief executive officer of the health board attended two of these meetings to see what could be done to resolve the problem.
I am disappointed that the Minister for Health is not in the House — I do not mean any disrespect to the Minister of State. I met the Minister for Health privately about this problem. I met him at the annual health board meeting in Bundoran last April and undertook to give him details of the problems, which I did one week later. It saddens me that I only received an acknowledgement from the Minister; he never replied to my representations.
In my representations I stated that residents of the area — Dr. Halley also states this — are prepared to accept that people from the catchment area be treated in this clinic. If the situation is allowed to continue the goodwill of the people will be lost. Time is running out on us and something must be done.
I suggest to the Minister that only people from the catchment area be treated there. Dr. Joe Barry, the AIDS and drug co-ordinator for the Eastern Health Board who is in charge of the clinic, told me that 30 people are being treated at that clinic from that catchment area. I am referring to health area No. 2 in the Eastern Health Board region which is divided into ten. I support any treatment programme to help people break their drug habit. I will conclude by quoting the following from what Dr. Barry stated in a letter to me, dated 20 October, 1993:
However, the situation is always volatile and we are continuing to monitor the situation. We have a security man on duty from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day to patrol the lane through which patients gain access to the hospital. We also have a 24 hour video recorder in the lane so any disturbance can be recorded.
I ask the Minister to reduce the number of patients being treated to 30 and to treat them with a certain dignity by allowing them to enter the hospital through 19 Baggot Street and not through the laneway where there is a video camera and security patrol. It is not right that they should have to go through a laneway to receive this treatment.