Wan Chai's methadone clinic should be moved to a hospital to rid the streets of homeless drug addicts, district board member Peggy Lam Pei Yu-dja said yesterday. Releasing a survey showing almost half of Wan Chai's street sleepers were current or reformed drug addicts, Mrs Lam called for the Health Department to remove the 'nuisance' created by the Violet Peel Clinic. The district board-City University study showed most of the current or former addicts were on the methadone programme, available from the clinic beside Southorn Stadium. 'The concentration of drug addicts attracts pushers,' Mrs Lam said. 'It's an area of high population and it's not good for the general public.' She also called for increased police patrols around the clinic. District board member Alice Tso Shing-yuk, the nursing general manager at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, questioned whether the methadone programme should continue at all. 'It should not be moved to a hospital because addicts can cause problems for other patients by injecting drugs in the toilets,' she said. A Health Department spokesman declined to comment on the call last night. The survey showed 91 homeless people, mostly men over 50, were sleeping in flyovers, parks and playgrounds around Wan Chai. Editorial - Page 18
