Record doses of naloxone given by Saskatoon-based EMS service in 2021
CBC
2021 was a very busy year for an EMS service provider in Saskatoon.
Both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the opioid epidemic have added stress to the work of paramedics in the city, according to Troy Davies, Director of Public Affairs Medavie Health Services West.
"It's definitely alarming," said Davies.
"There's no playbook for this that we have that we can just pull from the shelf and say, okay, let's do this."
In 2021 Medavie, formerly MD Ambulance, celebrated 45 years of service in Saskatoon and area.
In 2021, the service provider also dealt with record call volumes, record amounts of naloxone administration, constant changes to PPE requirements, mental health calls as well as supply change problems due to the pandemic, according to a press release from Medavie.
Last year EMS staff administered 604 doses of naloxone to patients, an increase of 31 per cent from 2020, according to the health-care delivery company.
"They're not robots," said Davies.
"It's on the paramedic to basically bring them back to life. And a lot of those times we don't."
On Dec. 2, the Saskatchewan Coroners Service reported 56 confirmed drug toxicity deaths in Saskatoon for 2021 compared to 105 in Regina.
Overall, the data showed roughly 400 deaths in Saskatchewan that were being investigated in 2021 as related to drug overdoses. Of those, 211 were confirmed fatal overdoses in the province.
"I don't know how much better off we are when we're looking at last year to this year; there are some good indications," said Jason Mercredi, Prairie Harm Reduction's executive director in Saskatoon earlier this month.
"You don't want to celebrate too much because you still have a record number of people dying."
Davies said naloxone kits — also known as Narcan — that are available to the public in and around Saskatoon have been helpful to the service provider.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.