A LEADING medic has rejected calls to provide safe ‘shooting galleries’ for heroin addicts in East Lancashire.

Swiss health chiefs provide drug users with controlled amounts of good quality heroin, instead of the synthetic substitute methadone, to curb their habit.

And similar trials have also been conducted by the NHS in the UK.

But following a public question, Dr Ellis Friedman, NHS East Lancashire’s public health director, said there were no plans to repeat the exercise on its patch covering Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, Rossendale and the Ribble Valley.

Dr Friedman was asked at an NHS board meeting by a member of the public whether such a move would resolve problems with drug users at the Barkerhouse Road pharmacy in Nelson.

The persona sked: “Does the board think it is now an appropriate time to start to consider a better facility for the Pendle needle exchange and appropriate dispensing pharmacy in the vicinity?

“Given the nature of the drug prescribed, would there also be a requirement for accommodation for the addicts to inject on the premises rather than take the materials out onto the streets of Pendle?”

Dr Friedman said: “There is evidence to support heroin rather than methadone being used to manage ‘chaotic’ drug users.

“Experts have conflicting views but it is, for example, the practice in Switzerland.

"However, it is not Department of Health policy and there are no current plans for further UK pilots.

“Even if there were plans to use heroin, it is unlikely such schemes would be pharmacy based.

"The heroin injections would take place within clinic premises.”

The health board, formerly known as East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, is currently tendering for a new needle exchange service, offeing a greater choice for users, which should be up-and-running by next April.