Emergency room visits for opioids high in city
One-third of OD patients needed to stay in hospital
AT
LEAST ONCE A DAY, an opioid user is rushed to a Hamilton emergency department.
More than one-third have opioidpoisoning serious enough to require hospitalization, found a report released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. “Hamilton has some of the highest rates in all of Ontario,” said Paul Sajan, manager of prescription drug abuse at CIHI.
Overall, the report found the rate of hospitalization due to opioid poisoning increased 53 per cent in Canada over the last nine years, with nearly half of that rise occurring over the last three years.
“This is a growing crisis in many parts of the country,” Sajan said. “Opioids are an extremely powerful and highly addictive class of drugs.”
Northern and Western Canada have been hardest hit.
But Ontario has an escalating epidemic, as well, with emergency de-
Hamilton’s rate was high for Ontario at nearly 22 hospitalizations per 100,000 population.
partment visits for opioid overdoses jumping almost 50 per cent in the last four years.
In Hamilton alone, there were 431 emergency department visits from April 1, 2016 to March 31. It translates into 56.3 visits per 100,000 population
Ontario’s highest rate was in Brantford at 98.9 visits per 100,000 population.
Brantford also had one of the country’s worst rates for opioidpoisoning hospitalizations at 32 per 100,000 population.
Hamilton’s rate was high for Ontario at nearly 22 per 100,000 population. In real numbers, it was 170 hospitalizations.
The hospital data CIHI used doesn’t distinguish how many of the hospital visits were due to prescription versus illicit opioid use.
But signs point to increasing illicit use.
While adults aged 45 and older still have the highest rates of hospitalization in Canada, the biggest rise is in youth aged 15 to 24.
“Most of that is not prescribed opioids,” Sajan said. “That’s an age group that is prescribed relatively few opioids. This is really largely the impact of the illegal market. Illegal opioids are much easier to obtain and they are relatively low cost on the streets compared to 10 years ago.”
However, doctor-prescribed opioids are still considered a big part of the problem with more than 20 million prescriptions filled in Canada last year.
More worrisome is how many prescriptions were for powerful opioids like fentanyl and hydromorphone.
“Historically, we’ve seen rates of prescribing continue to increase for opioids,” Sajan said. “Over half of all opioid prescriptions are actually for strong opioids. These are the drugs that have the greatest risk of harm. Because they are so powerful, it takes a very, very small dose to be effective. It is therefore very easy to overdose.”
The report found more than half of hospitalizations in Canada for opioid poisonings were considered accidental.