A new study shows that half of Ontarians who died of an opioid overdose in the early stages of the pandemic had interacted with the health-care system in the month before their deaths and one in four had seen a doctor, gone to an emergency department or been discharged from hospital just a week prior to their passing.
Unity Health and investigator with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network co-author Dr. Tara Gomes says that represents an important missed opportunity to ensure the health-care system is meeting the needs of people who use drugs and need the vital connections to services.
Dr. Gomes adds she and her co-authors are calling for a safer drug supply, expanded access to low-barrier treatment in health-care settings, affordable supportive housing and more harm-reduction services and supervised consumption sites.
She adds the report also determined most of the deaths recorded between March and December 2020 – 89 per cent – are linked to non-prescription opioids, almost exclusively fentanyl.
The report, titled “Patterns of Medication and Healthcare Use among People who Died of an Opioid-Related Toxicity during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario,” was released by Unity Health and the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network. Public Health Ontario, the chief coroner’s office and ICES, the non-profit health research organization, also contributed to the report.
https://odprn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Opioid-Related-Toxicity-Deaths-and-Healthcare-Use-Report.pdf
