Pubdate: Mon, 28 Aug 2017
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Emma McIntosh
Page: A7

HEALTH CARE WORKERS: DECLARE OPIOID CRISIS

Ontario caregivers say action would let government release additional
funding

More than 700 health care workers from across Ontario are calling on
the province to declare the opioid crisis an emergency, saying they're
overwhelmed by too many dying patients and too few resources.

Doing so would allow the government to release additional funding for
more front-line workers and rapidly approve programs to help those
suffering from addictions, says the group of doctors, nurses and
frontline workers from 55 Ontario communities.

The group has written a strongly worded letter, to be delivered to
Premier Kathleen Wynne and Health Minister Eric Hoskins Monday, asking
the government to act immediately.

"The letter really comes out of this place of total frustration,
exhaustion and just feeling abandoned," said Dr. Alexander Caudarella,
an addictions and family doctor in Toronto who helped draft the request.

"This is not a Toronto problem. This is not an exclusively inner-city
problem either."

Opioids - alone or combined with other drugs - were to blame for a
third of all accidental deaths in Toronto in 2015, according to a
Toronto public health report. Police have also issued safety alerts
after a batch of fentanyl killed four people and caused 20 overdose
incidents in three days in July.

Officials in British Columbia, where fentanyl and other opioids have
taken a particularly horrific toll, declared a state of emergency for
its opioid crisis last year.

Though Ontario wasn't hit as hard, Hoskins has said the province is
working to prevent the problem from worsening.

However, Caudarella said the process isn't moving fast enough, and
officials here need to learn from the precedent set in B.C.

By not declaring an emergency before now, the government has "sent the
message that people are alone and they're not as important,"
Caudarella said.

"What we've been seeing from the government is, although they've been
proposing changes, it's been a business-as-usual attitude," he said.

"We have a lot of the tools we need to stop this from getting worse.
All we need is the funding and political will to be able to enact this."

Hoskins lauded the group for its advocacy and said in a statement to
the Star that he remains "committed to working together . . . to
combat this issue."

Hoskins has met with mayors from across Ontario "to discuss the unique
experiences of individual communities dealing with opioid addiction
and overdose and to continue working together to address this
important issue."

In June, the province gave local health agencies $15 million to hire
staff and hand out naxolone kits, which are used to reverse overdoses.

Hoskins, himself a doctor, noted that Toronto alone will receive an
additional $3 million from the province for three safe-injection sites.

However, he added, "we know there is more work to be done. Any loss of
life as a result of opioid overdose is a needless and preventable
tragedy. Our government will continue to look for ways to strengthen
our strategy to offer the support communities and families struggling
with opioid use disorder need."

Caudarella is urging the province to establish more safe consumption
sites for drug users and start programs in communities outside big
cities - measures he says scientific evidence has proven effective.

Front-line workers have noticed a dramatic rise in overdoses this
summer, said Caudarella, saying he fears the issue will worsen if
officials don't act swiftly. Already, he said nurses have a "sense of
dread," thinking any time they see a client or patient may be the last.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt