Volunteers with an unsanctioned overdose-prevention site near Nanaimo Regional General Hospital are back, with plans to continue until a permanent site is added to the hospital.
"We currently have pop-up dates whenever enough of us are available to take a full day off of work to safely run the overdose-prevention site," said Dr. Jessica Wilder, who works in family and addictions medicine.
Wilder organized the initial pop-up overdose-prevention site across the road from NRGH for a week in November, as part of an independent group of physicians called Doctors for Safer Drug Policy. Other groups involved in the pop-up included Moms Stop the Harm, Harm Reduction Nurses Association, Vancouver Island University Harm Reduction Alliance and Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users.
While operational, users of illicit substances can use their drug while monitored by trained volunteers who are equipped to provide first aid if an overdose occurs. According to Health Canada, nobody has died of an overdose at a prevention site in Canada.
Wilder said volunteers plan to open the unsanctioned site as often as they are able to, until a permanent, funded site is operating outside NRGH.
It was revealed through leaked documents that Island Health initially planned an official overdose-prevention site on the property, but cancelled it as the province cracked down on drug use in hospitals.
"It has been a month, as of yesterday, since Josie Osborne has been in her new position as minister of health," Wilder said on Thursday, Dec. 19. "In that time, every day between five to seven British Columbians have lost their lives. In that time as well we have had zero response from her. This is the biggest health crisis that we are facing as a province."
In a November statement, the Ministry of Health said that the province "is currently taking action to establish minimum service standards for overdose prevention sites, as recommended recently by the auditor general to support consistent, quality care for people and a safe environment for workers. These standards will establish baseline operational and facility requirements for all provincially funded, fixed and mobile, overdose prevention services in B.C."
To run the unsanctioned site at any given time, Wilder said Doctors for Safer Drug Policy is requiring a minimum of two trained volunteers to be there together.
"It's the same group of committed people that we had for our original overdose-prevention site, so all of the same doctors, nurses – we have paramedics, physiotherapists, allied health workers, peers, all participating in the overdose-prevention site. It's just an incredibly committed group of people," she said. "Moms from Moms Stop the Harm have been a pivotal piece of this and students from VIU."
Wilder said the sites are affordable to operate, as the tents have already been paid for and harm-reduction supplies have been donated including Narcan kits, alcohol swabs, tourniquets, clean distilled water, clean needles and unused pipes as well as resuscitation equipment such as oxygen saturation probes, masks and oxygen bags.
"The main cost right now is just loss of income for the people who are having to volunteer their time to do this."
Upcoming dates that have been confirmed include Dec. 28 and Jan. 4-5.
Aside from this site, Wilder said her group has created a toolkit others can use to plan a site, and has been actively co-ordinating with others across Canada to organize a "hospital OPS network" of unsanctioned sites in more than 20 communities, which are in the planning stages. These include ten sites in B.C., two in Alberta, seven in Ontario, two in the Maritime provinces and one in Newfoundland.
