Ontario launches website making opioid data public after hundreds of overdose deaths

Ontario has launched a website that makes opioid-related data available to health-care workers and the public.

The tool, which comes after the province has been criticized over a lack of up-to-date data on opioids, provides access to verified information on opioid-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths in Ontario for 2003 to 2016.

Health Minister Eric Hoskins says 412 people died as a result of opioid overdoses in the first six months of 2016, compared with 371 during the same time period in 2015 — an 11 per cent increase.

For the same six-month time period from 2014 to 2015, there was a 13 per cent increase in opioid-related deaths.

Hoskins says these statistics show that taking action on the issue is "crucially important" and says accurate data is key to combating the third-leading cause of accidental death in the province.

Hoskins says the new opioid-tracking website will help health-care workers and policy makers better understand the scope and scale of the opioid problem.