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A second letter is sent to the provincial government to save a locally supervised injection site.
Jean Carriere, Chief Paramedic of Cochrane District Emergency Medical Services, spoke to the Cochrane District Social Services Management Board (CDSSAB) on Thursday 16 November about the effects of the closure of Safe Health Site Timmins (SHST) on the paramedic service.
Although it obtained federal approval, the province suspended all new investment applications. To date, the City of Timmins has funded the facility and this investment will end on December 31, 2023.
“If you don’t forget, a few years ago, before the safe fitness site opened, we were reporting deaths online from overdose calls flooding the paramedic,” Carriere said.
“A clever example is last week, we responded to 3. In one week, we responded to 3 overdose calls in the community. We had an average of 3 pre-insured fitness sites per day, 3 per week.
SHST is a position where others can take pre-purchased medications in the presence of trained medical personnel and connect to services.
The company has been operating for more than a year at its Cedar Street North facility, across from City Hall. It has been operating as a transition site since July 2022, and work is underway to gain approval from Health Canada for a permanent site. This federal designation may simply open the door to permanent investment, however, in October, Associate Minister for Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo announced that all new investment applications for the sites were suspended.
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Carriere there have been 22 deaths this year from overdoses.
“The time they stored lives in the gym would equate to 66 or 64 deaths compared to 22. So if I had to put it in layman’s terms, if the gym closes and doesn’t continue to receive funding, we’re definitely going to see more deaths in the community,” he said.
In October, SHST treated 46 overdoses without the need for emergency medical services, Carriere said. He also noted that as a result of the site, 177 overdoses were reversed, representing an estimated savings of $167,000 in EMS costs, representing additional hospitalizations or emergency service. Charges.
SHST publishes monthly reports on its online page here. The data has not been updated since August.
Brian Marks, executive leader of CASSDC, said that over the years the council has tried to take steps to make ambulances available.
“If we respond to 3 or 4 overdose calls a day, that means the ambulance is no longer on duty to answer 911 calls. But given the staffing issues we face, it also means we can’t possibly reassign paramedics to “Other communities are outside for 10 minutes to staff ambulances. That has a massive effect, restricting the availability of our ambulances and paramedics to be able to respond to 911 calls,” he said.
Timmins County. Andrew Marks said he supports the injection site.
“I would ask those kinds of intelligence facilities to send out a letter tomorrow, describing precisely what that report and what our executive leader has said in terms of the paramedics’ wishes and how it’s going to be carried out so that it possibly wakes up someone in Toronto to sort out the investment that the city of Timmins is seeking,” Said.
“This has provincial ramifications of the CDSSAB in a tangible way for other services, hospital, paramedics, 911. . . »
While the council has already sent a letter to the provincial government to save the site, members agreed to send a letter to emphasize the urgency of the situation.
Carriere said network partners involved in the SHST are meeting (Nov. 17) for an update.
“So, they have up-to-date information. But we have met with ministers, lobbying and managing the scenes to do what we can to make sure that the fitness and protection component remains open,” he said.
Marissa Lentz, a journalist with the Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday. com