Demand for Northern Ireland's community pharmacy needle exchange scheme has risen 60 per cent in the past four years.

In 2012-13, visits were up 58 per cent on 2008-09 to 21,220 – an average of 30 visits a week to the 14 pharmacies involved in the scheme.

The number of syringes issued also increased 57 per cent, to 213,295, according to the latest Public Health Association (PHA) figures.

The number of syringes issued by pharmacies involved in the scheme increased 57 per cent over four years according to PHA figures	More on needle exchange services Get involved in needle exchange, Nice urges pharmacists On the front line of addiction Extend needle exchange to under-16s, Nice advises
	The Needle and Syringe Exchange Service has had a "significant impact in improving health and reducing risks" since it started in 2005, according to the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB), which commissioned the service alongside the PHA.

The service aims to prevent Hepatitis C, HIV and other blood-borne viruses, and the HSCB and PHA plan to extend the service into a further four pharmacies this year.

Joe Brogan, head of pharmacy and medicines management at the HSCB, told C+D that pharmacies were the perfect setting for the scheme because they could offer anonymity and easy access to professional advice.

"Pharmacists have had a key role in identifying changing trends and concerns in Northern Ireland," he said.

One concern is the number steroid users accessing the scheme: they accounted for more than a quarter of service users in 2013, the first year the figure was measured. As a result of feedback from pharmacists, the scheme started to offer a specific service for "image- and performance-enhancing drug users" last year.

Pharmacist Richard Addie of J McGregor Chemist in Belfast, one of the pharmacies involved, urged pharmacists to engage with steroid users who come to see them.

"Many of these people are not fully aware of the health problems steroid use can cause, and we are in a position to change that," he told C+D.

He said pharmacists could provide "vital healthcare advice" in relation to problems such as withdrawal symptoms and "dangerous injection-site infections" to service users.

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