Kelowna opioid clinic expanding its hours
B.C. addictions minister announces additional staffing at treatment centre, which will double people served
A Kelowna opioid clinic is expanding its hours, which is expected to double the number of people it currently serves. Interior Health’s Opioid Agonist Treatment Centre recently added three doctors and two nurse practitioners, which will allow the clinic to open on nights and weekends, B.C. Addictions Minister Judy Darcy announced on Friday.
The clinic, located in the Interior Health building downtown, is described as a first-line treatment centre that uses prescribed medications, such as suboxone and methadone, to help addicts.
Weekend and evening appointments were added in response to client feedback that said many people miss appointments because they need to be at work, Interior Health explained in a news release.
In addition, walk-in access will be added from 9 to 11 a.m. daily.
It’s part of Interior Health’s goal to enhance access to treatments through a variety of locations and programs, IH board member Spring Hawes told the Friday news conference.
“This removes barriers to access,” she said.
Darcy cited a long list of measures IH and the provincial government are taking to combat B.C.’s opioid crisis.
There have been a million visits to safe-consumption and supervision sites in B.C., and 4,700 lives have been saved through improved access to treatments and services, she said.
Drug addict Andrew Leeking said the OAT clinic saved his life.
Leeking, 52, said he’s been receiving help for a year and is looking forward to being a good father again to his eight-year-old daughter.
“I am just one of thousands of people afflicted with this disease,” he said. “I watched nine people die in the year I was down on the streets.”