B.C. physicians' group calls on province to create space in hospitals for overdose prevention

An independent group of physicians on Vancouver Island is renewing calls for B.C.s Ministry of Health to make good on a promise to create space for overdose prevention at acute care facilities. 

An unsanctioned overdose prevention site has been set up near the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, where volunteers with experience in recognizing and responding to drug overdoses will be on hand. 

Among those at the site will be B.C.'s former chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, who has long advocated for more harm reduction for people who use substances. 

"We are still losing five or six people every single day of every week of every month. Anything we can do to address the harms, to reduce the deaths, I am wholeheartedly in support of, and that includes this pop-up overdose prevention site," LaPointe told CBC's On The Island host Gregor Craigie.

"If [our team] saves one life today, that would be absolutely fantastic."

In November, the group tried to set up overdose prevention sites at hospitals in Victoria and Nanaimo but were met by security and forced to move their sites off the properties. 

Data from the B.C. Coroners Service shows 2,253 people were killed by unregulated drugs in 2024. 

Since a public health emergency was declared in 2016 in relation to increasing drug-related deaths, more than 16,000 British Columbians have been killed by toxic drugs. 

Dr. Ryan Herriot, founder of Doctors for Safer Drug Policy and a local family and addictions physician, said overdose prevention sites reduce drug debris such as needles and pipes and improve workplace safety for nurses. 

"These services are absolutely necessary," he said. 

LaPointe said people who use substances need to be hospitalized for reasons unrelated to their substance use, and it's important for them to have access to those substances so they don't leave the hospital and end treatment. That's where overdose prevention sites on hospital property come in, she said.

"We've seen what happens to people who don't finish a course of treatment," she said. "Those are some of the people that we see ill on our streets. We want people to feel safe to remain in hospital.

"It is safe. It will save lives."

Island Health said in an email to CBC News that its major hospitals have Addictions Medicine Consult Service teams that focus on managing withdrawal so that patients, ideally, don't feel "the need to use substances while admitted to hospital."

Province developing 'minimum service standards'

According to a news release from the province in October, more than 50 overdose prevention sites are located throughout B.C.

In the statement, the province said it would be "improving access to overdose prevention services that offer observed inhalation services in communities hardest hit by the drug-poisoning crisis."

During a media scrum on Tuesday, Health Minister Josie Osborne said the province wants people who use drugs to be safe but also wants to consider the safety of those working in hospital settings.

She said the province is developing "minimum service standards" for overdose prevention sites. 

"I think everybody wants to do the right thing here," Osborne said. 

B.C.'s auditor general released a report one year ago detailing the deficiencies in the province's overdose prevention programs. The audit found the ministries' guidance didn't include minimum service standards that ensured consistent quality and access to services.

But Herriot says service standards are being met.

"The Minister of Health, Josie Osborne, continues to insist in her public comments that the work has been held up due to the need for 'minimum service standards,' as if the work previously done by Island Health was not done to a high standard, a notion that we reject," he said.  

"A similar site has been operating highly effectively at a Vancouver hospital since 2018, and that when one is dealing with a public health emergency, there is an urgent need to act that transcends usual bureaucratic processes."

Herriot said his group will continue to push for life-saving services. 

"We will not stop until all British Columbians, 225,000 of whom are at risk of death by toxic drug poisoning, have access to this essential service at all major acute care sites."