Glasgow drug services to be combined in £2m savings drive

Two specialist services which support drug users in Glasgow will be scrapped and replaced by a combined model to save about £2m.

The city's Integrated Joint Board, which includes councillors and NHS officials, voted to close the Enhanced Drug Treatment Service (EDTS) and Complex Needs Service.

The EDTS provides supervised treatment for chronic opioid dependency, while the the complex needs service helps people with trauma and mental illness.

The decision was made on Wednesday, when new National Record of Scotland figures revealed 196 people died from drug use in the city during 2025.

A successor service designed with input from and clinical experts will go before the board for approval in November.

Trade union Unison previously warned making cuts to drug treatment services during "an unprecedented, European leading crisis would be utterly shameful".

However chief social work officer Kelda Gaffney, said the combined service would "keep the best of both parts" while modernising support offered.

Heroin-assisted treatment will continue.

The move was proposed as the IJB, which oversees the city's health and social care partnership (HSCP), needs to make savings of over £100m over the next three years.

The board believe redesigning the two services would keep specialist support while reducing duplication and providing more efficient services.

The services are based at the Hunter Street health centre, where the Thistle drug consumption room is also situated.

Pat Togher, chief officer of the HSCP, said: "We now have the Thistle service, which we didn't have when these services were stood up at the beginning.

"I'm sure there are other services that we have developed in the intervening period."

Labour and Green councillors on the board voted to reject the proposal while SNP councillors supported it.

Story by Local Democracy Reporting Service reporter Drew Sandelands.