Canada

How many people are overdosing while they are patients at British Columbia’s hospitals?

This data is essential to understanding the importance of opening hospital-based overdose prevention sites, addiction medicine doctors told The Tyee.

In an atmosphere where the province’s drug policy is a hot-button topic, it’s also key to developing public understanding about why the sites are necessary, doctors added. This is because it is safer for both patients and staff when patients who use substances are able to use them at adjacent overdose prevention sites, rather than feeling pressure to either be discharged early or use substances illicitly in places where they can find privacy, such as hospital bathrooms.

But after seven months, seven freedom of information requests and two Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner complaints, The Tyee is no closer to a strong understanding of how many people are currently surviving overdoses as patients in hospitals across B.C.