Fatal overdoses

According to the BC Coroners Service, in March 2019 104 died from an overdose across BC, including 29 people in the VCH region.

Overdoses seen at Emergency

In April 2019 there were 687 overdoses seen at nine VCH Emergency Departments. The majority of overdoses occurred in males (71%) and in people aged 19 to 39 years (53%).

Supervised Consumption and Overdose Prevention Sites 

Insite

In April 2019, there were 9,482 visits to the supervised injection room. Among those, 102 overdoses were reversed. 

Powell Street Getaway 

In April 2019, there were 3,278 visits to the supervised injection room. Among those, 7 overdoses were reversed.  

Overdose Prevention Sites

In April 2019, there were 37,230 visits to the five supervised injection rooms. Among those, 229 overdoses were reversed. 

Drug Checking

In April 2019, 497 drug checks were performed and 54% of substances tested contained fentanyl.

What's happening

Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care are extremely concerned about the high number of overdoses and overdose deaths in our region and throughout the province and continue to take steps to respond. VCH & PHC and its partners are taking a number of steps to reduce opioid/fentanyl-related overdoses, including new actions this month: 

• Established 4 new sites where people can obtain take-home naloxone kits for a total of 423 sites across VCH.

• Sent 2 alerts about drug contamination via the Real-time Drug Alert & Response (RADAR) System.