Dr. Piotr Oglaza, Interim Medical Officer of Health Hastings Prince Edward Board of Health, January 4, 2017. (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Health officials in Hastings and Prince Edward are launching a four-pronged strategy aimed at curbing the harmful use of prescription opioids.
In 2013, 10 people died of prescription Opiod use in our area.
Statistics presented to the local Board of Health Wednesday show that 10,513 people were using opioids through prescription in Hastings County in 2013, with 644 on therapy for addiction in 2015.
Fentynal is included in those numbers.
Hastings Prince Edward sits 14th in the provincial statistics. This is in the top third.
Interim Medical Officer of Health Piotr Oglaza says “This is not where you want to be.”
Oglaza says a doctors’ training conference will be held at the health unit on February 8.
He says discussion is underway with the Local Health Integration Network and community health service providers to increase access to Naloxone throughout the region.
Board member Jo-Anne Albert said, “It’s scary. There must be something else out there so that patients don’t go home with 60 Opioid pills” to control the pain but possibly lead to more problems.
Oglaza said, “Opioids are effective but we need to work on it. How much to give to a patient going home. We need to close the loop, that’s where the LHIN comes in. The idea is to try to give people alternatives to the Opioid medicine.”
