Dr. Ryan Herriot unloads equipment as Victoria Police officers look over an unsanctioned overdose prevention site out front of the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, B.C., on Nov. 18.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail
A group of Vancouver Island addiction medicine physicians set up temporary unsanctioned overdose prevention sites outside hospitals in Victoria and Nanaimo on Monday to protest what they say is government inaction on plans for the harm reduction service.
Security guards employed by the Vancouver Island Health Authority dismantled the tents twice at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital Monday morning before the volunteers set up on a city boulevard across the street. In Nanaimo, the protest site opened across the street from the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. The volunteers say they plan to run the twin sites for at least the first three days of this week.
Island Health had told staff last year that it would open overdose prevention sites at hospitals on the island, beginning with locations in Victoria, Nanaimo and Campbell River, the doctors say. But months later, nothing exists.
Ryan Herriot, a family and addiction doctor in Victoria who helped organize the unsanctioned site there, said he and his colleagues opened these pop-up protest sites to spur action from the province and stop more illicit drug poisoning deaths during a week with a “Cheque Day – the most lethal day of the month every month” – for those on social assistance.
“We’re calling on the B.C. government to fund this. And to do it properly and quickly,” he told The Globe and Mail on the same day the new BC NDP cabinet is being sworn in and Ontario tabled legislation to prohibit supervised consumption sites in proximity to schools and childcare centres.
A group of Vancouver Island addiction medicine physicians set up an unsanctioned overdose prevention site outside of the Victoria hospital to protest what they say is government inaction on plans for harm reduction services.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail
Réka Gustafson, Chief Medical Health Officer for Island Health, said, in a statement Monday afternoon, that her agency removed the “unapproved clinical service or demonstration” from the grounds of the Victoria hospital to ensure regulatory, safety and standards were all being followed. Her statement said the two hospitals have teams of addictions experts that help patients manage their withdrawal symptoms, with the goal of reducing the need to use illicit substances while in care at these facilities.
But, she added, Island Health wants to keep talking with the rogue doctors “around how we can work together to improve supports for the people who use substances.”
Minutes after being sworn in as B.C.’s new Minister of Health, Josie Osborne, whose portfolio includes mental health and addiction, sidestepped The Globe’s question as to whether she supports the twin protest sites. She did say the new government is committed to doing everything it can to improve access to health care services.
At least six doctors and dozens of volunteers were involved with opening Monday’s makeshift overdose prevention sites. About a dozen other doctors are supporting the action with funding and logistical help.
Jessica Wilder, a family and addictions medicine physician involved in the Nanaimo site, said she took an oath to take care of her patients and that includes advocating for life-saving services when they are needed.
“Right now, overdoses are happening on our hospital grounds, in our parking lots and in our hospital bathrooms, on at least a weekly basis,” she said. “The only difference by having an overdose prevention site there is that I, or somebody else trained on overdose response, would be standing by with life-saving medication if something goes wrong.”
Last spring, the NDP government significantly walked back its policy of decriminalizing small amounts of some street drugs for personal use after a backlash, including from nurses who said decriminalization appeared to lead to a permissive approach to drug use within hospitals, endangering nurses.
The government announced a new provincewide policy on illicit drug use in hospitals, including a zero-tolerance approach to the use and possession of these substances outside of designated overdose prevention sites – which most hospitals don’t have. The health minister at the time, Adrian Dix, said his government would create a task force to standardize rules and create “active supports” to help patients manage their addictions while in care.
The NDP’s drug policies became a flashpoint in this fall’s provincial election, amplified by the BC Conservatives.
A Victoria Police officer speaks with a group of Vancouver Island addiction medicine physicians and supporters as they set up the overdose prevention site.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail
Addiction physicians and public-health officials who advocate for overdose prevention services in hospitals say that a complete prohibition of illicit drug use in these health care facilities could lead some people to use in unsanctioned places, self-discharge or avoid the hospital altogether.
In Vancouver, St. Paul’s Hospital has an overdose prevention site comprised of four injection booths and nine spaces for inhalation. It is peer-staffed and receives between 40 and 50 visits a day.
About six people die from illicit drug toxicity every day in B.C.
With a report from Justine Hunter in Victoria