The Somerset West Community Health Centre is home to one such site that has an average of 700 visits each month.Ĭaroline Cox, the centre's senior manager of harm reduction, said there has been an increase in visits since the fall but the number of overdoses remains low, averaging at around 10 a month. Wilton said supervised consumption sites are likely one reason for that drop. Renfrew County and District Health Unit January 3, 2023ĭata from Ottawa Public Health show there were 693 emergency room visits for opioid-related overdoses between January and October, which is 10 per cent fewer visits than in the same period in 2021. 🔎Find more information at #StopOverdoses #RCDHU /CYe9krwFdC 👉The Good Samaritan law can protect you from simple drug possession charges. 👉Call 9-1-1 and wait for Paramedics to arrive. It takes a long time to get the drugs tested, but one has to act quickly to get the message out because lives are at risk," said Gemmill.ĭo you suspect that someone has overdosed? Ian Gemmill, the county's acting medical officer of health, said he was alarmed that four people overdosed last week. The Renfrew County and District Health Unit, which serves communities just west of the city, sent out an overdose alert Monday warning residents about "life-threatening" drugs circulating in the area. "Nobody is carrying an (antidote) kit for what's currently in the drugs because that message hasn't made it to the streets," said Wilton.Ī drug called flumazenil can reverse benzodiazepine overdoses, but Wilton said it is administered at the hospital and not by paramedics.
The problem, Wilton said, is that not all patients are responding to the antidote, which is not effective against benzodiazepines.
Naloxone is considered a first-line treatment for paramedics and has been made accessible at pharmacies because it can reverse opioid overdoses. Wilton said his team is seeing an increase in benzodiazepines such as Valium being mixed with opioids - a combination that can send patients to the hospital for treatments paramedics can't provide. "There isn't a day that has gone by in 2022 that we have not received an overdose call," said Darryl Wilton, president of the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa. Drug overdose calls have become a daily occurrence in the nation's capital and paramedics say they're concerned about the toxicity of the drug supply, which is making the most widely available tools less effective.
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