EMS attend to a call downtown in this undated file photo.-- News File Photo
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Medicine Hat ambulance crews are responding to twice as many opioid-related emergencies in early 2023 compared to last year, setting a new record high in just six months.
Figures published by the province’s substance use surveillance program for July show that emergency medical technicians in Alberta’s cities are increasingly being called to the sites of overdoses, as deaths by opioid overdose or reactions increase as well.
In Medicine Hat, total ambulance dispatches for opioid-related events totalled 108 for the six months of the year, eclipsing the 103 calls recorded for the entire year in 2022.
The figures for the province, updated to June 30, show the number of calls rapidly increasing in recent months, including a record 1,500 calls in June alone.
Those levels prompted the head of the union that represents emergency medial technicians to call on the province to reconsider employing “harm reduction” strategies to stem the increase.
“The rise in drug poisonings and deaths puts a strain on the entire health-care system,” said Mike Parker, president of the Heath Sciences Association of Alberta. “Our members see the devastating impacts as the emergency medical professionals who respond to the calls for help.”
Local police said investigations into opioid trafficking have remained a relatively similar number from year to year, but did not provide statistics to the News.
Acting Staff Sgt. Dave Gornisiewicz of the local Alert Crime Unit said all drugs seized are tested and the changing nature of drug manufacturing could be behind the increase in medical distress calls.
“Our effort is to combat opioid trafficking and we make fentanyl investigations in our community a priority,” he said, noting that when raw fentanyl is processed into pill form it is often mixed with other agents, or other narcotics, to either save money or create a different type of “high.”
“It’s really difficult to determine, sometimes, just what is going into a substance drug when they are manufactured,” said Gornisiewicz. “The amount of drugs and types of drugs that go in are consistently changing. That makes the use of naloxone less effective than it once was and that results in police presence and certain investigations.”
Responding to a marked increase in opioid related deaths in Medicine Hat to start the year, safe supply advocates told the News that higher toxicity in street drugs was the result of the province moving away from “safe supply” policy and facilities to test drugs for users.
The provincial government has been staunchly against such practices, stating its focus is on “recovery-oriented” strategy only. It plans to increase capacity in treatment facilities over the next few years, by establishing 11 new recovery centres in the province.
Last week the government announced a new partnership to build a 75-bed centre at the Siksika Nation, near Gleichen, capable of treating about 300 people each year for drug addiction. Construction will begin in 2024.
“The illness of addictions continues to have devastating effects across Alberta,” Premier Danielle Smith told a press conference. “I wholeheartedly believe there is a better life for everyone who chooses recovery and that recovery is possible for everyone.”
Hospitalizations and emergency room visits related to opioids also rose to record levels in the first quarter of the year in the South Health Zone, which includes Lethbridge.
In that city, ambulances have responded to 257 events in 2023, about two every three days, including 22 alone during one seven-day period in February.
The 103 incidents recorded last year in Medicine Hat were the highest since 2018, when 105 calls were logged over 12 months. The current rate sees a crew dispatched about once every two days, but calls numbered nine during a seven-day period twice this spring.
Two weeks ago, the system reported that deaths due to opioid overdose in Medicine Hat returned to a record pace in the early months. From January through April, 12 deaths in the city were linked to opioid use. A total of 34 were recorded in 2021, and 21 in 2022.
