Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jul 2016
Source: Peterborough Examiner, The (CN ON)
Page: A6
Copyright: 2016 Peterborough Examiner
Contact: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/letters
Website: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2616
Author: Joelle Kovach

TAKE-HOME NALOXONE KITS URGED

Medical Officer of Health Seeks Funding to Allow Hospital to Provide 
Lifesaving Opioid Antidote to Overdose Survivors

Peterborough Regional Health Centre's emergency department is 
considering a plan to distribute take-home kits of the opioid 
antidote naloxone to patients who've survived an overdose.

It can't happen soon enough for Dr. Rosana Salvaterra, the medical 
officer of health, who is a strong advocate of the idea.

Salvaterra says Peterborough Public Health has been working with the 
hospital to access a provincial grant to make it happen. She said 
she's expecting to hear, sometime in August, whether they can expect any money.

"I think it makes sense to have naloxone available in the emergency 
room," she said.

An overdose of opioid drugs such as morphine, methadone or OxyContin 
can cause a person's breathing to stop. Naloxone is an injectable 
medication that can reverse this so the person can breathe again.

Salvaterra said it works much the way an epi-pen does for someone who 
is suffering from anaphylaxis.

She said PRHC is seeing a rate of opioid-related visits to the 
emergency room that is more than twice the provincial average.

She said that across Ontario, out of 100,000 visits to the ER, 28 
were opioid-related in 2013 (that's the latest statistic available 
from the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network).

I n Peterborough, that figure was 64 visits out of 100,000.

Although the Ontario gov-ernment makes naloxone kits available free 
at pharmacies, Salvaterra thinks it would be good to also give it to 
patients as they leave the ER.

She says many of them will never visit a pharmacist, particularly if 
they are using street drugs (heroin is an opioid, for instance.)

"There's still a stigma - they might choose not to go to a pharmacy," she said.

Dr. Mark Troughton, the chief and medical director at the emergency 
department at PRHC, said the hospital is considering options for 
treating patients who've survived opioid overdoses.

Handing out naloxone kits would be helpful if it's done "safely and 
properly", he said.

That means figuring out how the emergency department could offer 
instructions for the use of a naloxone - the same type of 
instructions you'd get from a pharmacist in the drugstore.

It's not simple to figure out how to make that happen in an ER, he 
said, but it's worth doing.

He said he'd like to see family members of those who've survived an 
opioid overdose carrying naloxone kits - and knowing how to use them.

"Having this treatment in the hands of family members would save 
lives," he said.

Donna Rogers is the executive director of Fourcast, a local agency 
that offers help for addictions.

She said a nurse from Peterborough Public Health regularly visits to 
hand out naloxone kits at Fourcast and teach people how to use them.

It pleases her that PRHC is considering how it might start 
distributing naloxone in the ER.

"I think it's very progressive of the hospital to take an interest in 
this," she said. "It demonstrates an awareness of patient need."

Increasing access to naloxone is a great idea, Rogers said.

"Naloxone is an intervention that can save lives," she said. "The 
more places people can access it, the better."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom