GUELPH – The Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service has asked the local health unit to help Emergency Medical Services (EMS) organizations become approved community naloxone distributors.
The Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) board supported the request at its May 1 meeting and is writing a letter to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.
“Naloxone is a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose and is available as an injection or nasal spray,” stated Karen Mulvey, interim manager for clinical services, in a report.
At the meeting Rita Isley, director of community health, said many organizations interact with populations at risk of an opioid overdose every day and can distribute naloxone kits.
Isley noted EMS is one of the most common.
“They often arrive at scenes, where there are multiple people present, to respond to an overdose,” she said. “They either leave the scene without taking anyone with them because the person who is a user refuses to go to the hospital … they also could be leaving a scene with individuals who could … benefit from having the naloxone kit on hand.”
But, Isley said, paramedics currently are not able to distribute naloxone kits.
“Although paramedics are well trained in administering naloxone for the purpose of emergency response, they can’t leave medication, life-saving medication, with the individuals that they see on a regular basis every day,” Isley said.
Opioid-related deaths in the WDGPH coverage area are up 420 per cent since 2006 and have nearly tripled in the last three years (eight deaths in 2015 to 23 deaths in 2017.)
Opioids affect a person’s ability to breath which leads to decreased oxygen traveling to vital organs. Naloxone reverses these effects and it is proven that take home naloxone kits help decrease the rates of opioid related deaths, Mulvey wrote in her report.
WDGPH provides naloxone kits to the community and eligible organizations for distribution.
In 2018 there were 16 eligible organizations participating in the program and 1,419 naloxone kits were distributed.
Board of health members voiced their surprise that EMS workers weren’t already eligible to distribute naloxone kits.
“I’m just surprised they aren’t now,” said member Erin Mayor Allan Alls.
Board chair Minto Mayor George Bridge agreed. “It makes no sense,” he said. “It’s a very logical thing.”
Board member June Hofland said she was talking to Stephen Dewar, chief of the Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service, and he said on one weekend in April EMS had two calls involving opioid overdoses.
“It would have been very helpful if they had had the kits and been able to do what they needed to do,” Hofland said. “So it’s very appropriate that we do this letter writing to the [ministry].”
The board voted unanimously to receive the report and send a letter to the Minster of Health and Long-Term Care requesting EMS organizations be added to the list of community groups permitted to distribute naloxone kits to people in the community.
