Christchurch-based health collective He Waka Tapu has taken over the contract from the Disc Trust and will start running the service from October after the Disc Trust held the contract for more than three decades.
He Waka Tapu chief executive Toni Tinirau told the Otago Daily Times yesterday there would be a "phased approach" to delivering needle exchange services.
"We are about to employ several of the current workforce, so that keeps that whole continuity of that front face.
"I do expect a glitch or two, but we will immediately respond and rectify, you know, where we can.
"What’s really important to us is having our consumer voice involved so we’re able to set up our own working group where the peer support whanau will be participating and informing us as we go forward."
The handover of the contract has proved to be controversial within the community; many peer support workers fear a reduction of services or at least a move away from the approach that has been in place for decades.
Ms Tinirau assured the public that the firm would have the experience to ensure clients would return.
"It’s been a really difficult space in regards to just timing and waiting what was appropriate for the current provider and waiting for them to do the bits and pieces that they needed to do.
"We’ve had to be respectful and wait."
He Waka Tapu holds the contract for the needle exchange service across the South Island, and Ms Tinirau said it hoped to use the former providers’ infrastructure "where it can" in the regions.
It has already reduced the operating sites in Christchurch from two to one — Ms Tinirau said it would base itself at a new building in Pages Rd in Christchurch and look towards securing another lease in the city’s centre.
Ms Tinirau said the organisation was in a discussion for a lease in Dunedin and it should be sorted by the end of the week.
"It’s still needle exchange with education information.
"We don’t have any of the hep C testing or the drug checking. That stays where it is with the current provider."
She promised consumers there would be peer support workers with "lived experience" operating under the new system.
"I come from lived experience myself, so I haven’t made anything up in my head."
She said the group was part of a greater Te Waipounamu collective, which had "collectively over 100 years worth of experience" in the health system.
"We have between us 400 staff made up of peers, lived experience and obviously some specialist clinicians that sit in some other spaces, like our nurses and our doctors. We have worked really hard to try to make sure that the service fields are the same."
Disc Trust national harm reduction lead Jason George said the trust would continue to provide drug checking, hepatitis C and HIV screening, and other health services not only at its Dunedin, Christchurch and Nelson sites, but also through outreach and mobile services across the South Island.
"From our perspective, the key concern is ensuring that people who rely on needle exchange, drug checking and hepatitis C and HIV screening continue to have safe, reliable access without disruption.
"These services are most effective when they are easy to access and available at times and places that suit people’s lives, which is why we have co-located services where possible."
