Royal Alex injection site set to open
Hospital sees 20 patients daily who could use supervised drug facility, official says
Admitted patients at the Royal Alexandra Hospital will have access to their own supervised injection site on the hospital’s grounds starting Easter Monday, though questions remain about how much the facility will be used.
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman hosted a news conference Tuesday to announce the April 2 opening date, while noting the Royal Alex will be the first acute care hospital in North America to operate such a site.
That makes it something of an experiment expected to catch the interest of other health jurisdictions. Nonetheless, hospital leaders say they are confident of the need for such a facility at the Royal Alex, which sees more patient traffic related to the opioid crisis than any other health centre in Alberta.
Dr. Kathryn Dong, who leads the hospital’s Addiction Recovery and Community Health (ARCH) program, said her team is typically in touch with about 20 patients each day who could use the service.
And there are likely others they don’t know about, she said.
“Getting sick and being admitted to hospital does not cure a patient’s substance use disorder,” Dong said. “Yet we have expected those patients to be abstinent while they are here.”
While the concept of supervised consumption services has been gaining acceptance in Alberta, having such a site on the Royal Alex grounds has been controversial among those who view hospitals as places of healing and sobriety.
Dong said the reality is that addicts will continue to use drugs secretly during their hospital stay.
She said a hospital is actually one of the most dangerous places for someone to inject narcotics.
Illicit drug use in a hospital typically occurs in bathrooms, closets and other private spaces where no one is around to see if something goes wrong.
The new unit will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for admitted patients only.
Upon being admitted, the patients will be given access to a safe to store belongings, including any drugs they have. If they want to use the safe consumption site, they will be directed or escorted to the unit and buzzed in through a security door.
The facility can serve up to six patients at a time. The hope is that some visitors will be amenable to starting treatment, so counsellors, social workers and peer-support staff will be around to help.
“Supervised consumption services is a very, very important first step on a path to treatment,” Dong said. “We are going to fight to save every single life we can.”
The facility is located in a renovated space in the Royal Alex’s former Women’s Centre building. Upgrades were about $500,000, and the site is expected to cost about $1.8 million annually to operate.
Dong said there is some disbelief among patients that the hospital is offering the service. As such, she said getting patients to use the facility is largely a matter of building relationships and trust.
She said the ARCH team has already done a good job of building that trust with members of the community they see regularly.
“But it will take time for others to be comfortable,” Dong said. “Word will spread. But we have to get it right from Day 1, because if we have a bad consequence, that will also spread like wildfire.”
Supervised consumption services is a very, very important first step on a path to treatment. We are going to fight to save every single life we can.