'Saving lives is not controversial': B.C. doctors set up 'unsanctioned' overdose prevention sites at hospitals
CTV
A group of physicians are setting up unofficial overdose prevention sites outside two Vancouver Island hospitals Monday, aiming to help people struggling with addiction – while also sending a message to the government.
A group of physicians are setting up unofficial overdose prevention sites outside two Vancouver Island hospitals Monday, aiming to help people struggling with addiction – while also sending a message to the government.
“Lately, there's been a lot of controversy and politicization around the work that I do, and meanwhile, people are dying,” said Dr. Jess Wilder, a Nanaimo-based addictions and family medicine physician.
“We want to bring the narrative back to the fact that saving lives is not controversial.”
She told CTV News the group will operate at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. The setup includes two tents, one for drug use and another where doctors will be on standby in case of an emergency. They plan to have the overdose prevention sites open this week between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday to Friday.
The OPS have not been approved by the Vancouver Island Health Authority, and Wilder acknowledges that the volunteers could be asked to leave.
However, the outcome she hopes for is that officials will see that operating such sites at hospitals is possible.
“A small group of people with money out of their own pockets were able to make this happen in just a couple short weeks,” Wilder told CTV News. “And so I would hope that this can demonstrate a free proof of concept to our health authority and to our government of how we can bring these services to all of our hospitals.”
