The Victorian government has hit back at claims Melbourne’s medically supervised drug-injecting room is a failure, with the centre’s director saying staff intervened during 12 overdoses since it opened less than a week ago.

On Friday the shadow attorney general, John Pesutto, criticised the injecting room saying it had not prevented drug use continuing around the centre.

Pesutto called for an “independent” analysis, saying he would not take the centre’s staff or the government’s data at “face value”.

There were also claims published in the Herald Sun that drug users in the North Richmond area, notorious for heroin use and dealing, were snubbing the centre.

However, Dr Nico Clark said on Friday that there had been between one and three overdoses a day that had required staff to provide oxygen or administer the heroin antidote naloxone.



“Some of those overdoses have been quite serious and had we not been there to use naloxone they would most likely have been fatal,” he said.

There had been 400 visits in the first five days, which had exceeded expectations.

“A third of people have requested assistance with hepatitis and a quarter have asked for assistance with drug treatment,” he said. “Overall, it’s a very positive start to the facility.”

The injecting room, which the government says should eventually be used by about 300 people a day, has angered some residents. The Victorian opposition has vowed to close it if it wins the November state election.

The opposition had initially supported the centre but changed its mind when the government allowed methamphetamine users to access it.

About 2% of visitors to the facility had used methamphetamine or ice but there had been no behavioural issues so far, Clark said.

The Victorian mental health minister, Martin Foley, said the Coalition’s pledge to close the centre would put lives at risk.

“Matthew Guy, if he’s intent on closing the facility, will throw more than 80 to 90 people a day back on the streets of North Richmond,” he said.

Foley said it was “early days”, but noted there had been 35 heroin-related deaths in the area, referring to fatalities in 2015.

“We have been more than pleased with these very early indications of success,” he said. “What we were doing previously was not working.”

Foley also said usage had been stronger than at Sydney’s Kings Cross centre, which opened in 2001.

That centre, in the heart of Sydney’s nightlife precinct, is yet to record a death despite thousands of potentially fatal overdoses.

Dr Marianne Jauncey, director of Sydney’s safe-injecting centre, backed Foley’s comments, telling ABC Radio only a handful of people had used the Kings Cross facility when it first opened.

“This stuff really does take time,” she said, adding that she was pleased there had been “430-odd injections” that would “otherwise have occurred in public”.

Clark said staff undertook a series of checks to decide if a person was eligible to use the centre, and some had been turned away.

“We’ve had to turn some people away because they were under 18, because they were pregnant, because they wanted to inject somebody else ... or because they wanted to drive from the facility,” he said.

Having opposed the centre for some time, the Victorian government announced it would establish a safe-injecting room during last year’s Northcote byelection campaign in which Labor unsuccessfully sought to fend off a challenge from the Greens.

A larger, purpose-built centre is scheduled to open in 2019, after the state election.