A pilot project is underway at the emergency department at St Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver, where overdose patients are given a take-away packs of medication aimed at warding off withdrawal symptoms and getting them into treatment to prevent deaths from tainted opioids.
The treatment package has three days worth of a drug called Suboxone, which has been used in the hospital’s ER for a few years.
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Dr. Andrew Kestler, a co-lead of the program at St. Paul’s Hospital, says patients need to be in a high degree of opioid withdrawal to start treatment.
“For most sort of short-acting opioids, it’s about 12 hours from the last use.”
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He says when patients come in for opioid addiction or withdrawal symptoms, they get the kit.
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“They get the to-go pack, they get some instructions how to start it, some instructions on which clinics to follow up in.”
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Kestler says previously only 25 per cent of those would actually show up to a clinic when referred, and they hope the take-away doses will make it easier for opioid-addicted patients to seek treatment and ultimately save lives.
The hospital is the first in Canada to provide this treatment.
The two-year pilot project will be evaluated by the BC Centre on Substance Use in the province, which has the highest number of overdose deaths in Canada.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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