Paramedics in Saskatoon say May was a record month for overdose calls.
Medavie Health Services West spokesman Troy Davies said ambulances responded to 262 overdoes calls last month. The opioid antidote naloxone, sometimes referred to under the brand name Narcan, was administered 48 times.
“That’s a number we’ve never seen before in the history of our service,” Davies said.
“Before, it was a rarity that you have a Narcan save. Now we’re having these calls come in every second day.”
The increase follows a trend noted in other provinces during the COVID-19 pandemic. In British Columbia, where overdose deaths had been finally declining prior to the pandemic, the coroner’s service recorded 117 overdose deaths in April, the largest number since March 2019.
AIDS Saskatoon executive director Jason Mercredi said similar data is unfortunately not available in Saskatchewan, at least not quickly. The provincial coroner’s office tracks drug toxicity deaths, but the latest update to those figures noted that some deaths dating as far back as 2018 are still under investigation and thus not added to the provincial tally.
Mercredi said there’s a surging desire for naloxone kits, which some organizations in Saskatoon distribute for free. AIDS Saskatoon handed out 193 of them last month and is on track to hand out even more in June.
He believes the rise in overdose calls is spurred by an increasingly toxic drug and compounded by a pandemic that keeps people from their family, friends and certain social and mental health services, he said.
“It’s kind of a disaster right now.”
Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said restoring mental health services, some of which were put on hold during the pandemic, will be a priority for the SHA as it looks to its own reopening plan.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the connection between the two public health crises is unclear, but that mental health issues can be worsened by unemployment, social isolation and travel restrictions.
“It may or may not be related to COVID, but it’s one of the other public health threats that has been continuing for two years,” Shahab said.
While paramedics don’t have the capacity or authority to investigate what specific substance caused each overdose they respond to, Davies said there have been multiple cases in which naloxone had to be used more than once to revive a patient. To him, that signals the presence of more powerful drugs on the street, he said.
Davies called for a more “proactive” approach to overdose prevention, noting the situation is costing lives and taking a toll on survivors and paramedics who attend those calls.
Mercredi said AIDS Saskatoon and some other community-based social services are slowly opening their doors this week as the province steps into the third phase of its reopening plan.
He said the spike in overdoses reinforces the need for a safe consumption site where people could take drugs under supervision and with access to complementary health and addiction services. The site would free up police and paramedic services, he noted.
The site on 20th Street is built and has been approved by the federal government, but is not operational.
The provincial government’s 2020-21 cost estimates did not include any of the $1.3 million Mercredi says would be needed to run it.
“This consumption site needs to open in 2020, come hell or high water,” he said.
