Hamilton public health wants budget boost to expand anti-overdose program
Expanding access to life-saving opioid overdose kits is a top priority for Public Health Services as a request for increased funding goes to city's budget committee on Friday.
The proposed budget boost would increase service hours for the travelling needle syringe exchange van service during the week, as well as adding Sunday hours for the first time.
The van has proven to be the most effective way of getting lifesaving naloxone kits to addicts at high risk of overdose around the city, says a report going to the committee on Friday.
The report says Hamilton has handed out an estimated 582 naloxone kits between May 2014 and July 2016. Officials believe at least 148 lives have been saved as a direct result.
Supplies are provided at no cost to Public Health Services, but no additional staff and operational funding have been provided to support the program since its introduction, even when the program expanded to provide nasal naloxone sprays to inmates released from detention centres last year.
The recommended changes to the naloxone program would cost $260,956. This would cover hiring more nurses and outreach workers, as well as fuel costs for the van and extra operation hours throughout the week.
It's a significant increase over the existing budget for the city's Take Home Naloxone program of $157,243, under which the van currently operates for 4 hours a day from Monday to Saturday, and city taxpayers will cover the boost if approved.
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Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre giving naloxone to released inmates
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Hamilton LHIN has most opioid overdose deaths in province over 5 years
Lifesaving intervention
Each kit, containing an injectible dose of naloxone to counteract an opioid overdose, is provided after mandatory one-time training and costs about $48, paid for by a provincial program.
Health Canada de-listed the lifesaving antidote last year. As of June 2016, a naloxone kit does not require a prescription to be sold in Ontario pharmacies, and is free-of-cost to eligible recipients.
When injected into a person who is overdosing on prescription opioids, including morphine, heroin, or fentanyl, the naloxone can reverse the effects for about 10 minutes -- just long enough to get the victim to an emergency room.
Overdose is currently the third-leading cause of accidental death in Ontario, with one death by overdose every 13 hours.
The numbers are even more stark in Hamilton, where there have been more opioid-related deaths in the Hamilton LHIN (which includes Niagara, Haldimand and Brant) over a five-year period than anywhere else in the province, according to a recent study from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.
A recent study showed the opioid epidemic claimed 444 lives from 2009 to 2013. In 2013 alone, there were 96 deaths, which is the highest in the province and well above the Ontario average.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who hosted an opioid summit recently, recognized that this was a local problem.
"This level of drug addiction isn't just for the down and out — it's all over the community," Mayor Fred Eisenberger said. "There is a significant issue out there … and obviously, we don't want anyone to die."