Hamilton awaits injection site fate

Mayor and health-care advocates say they’re pressing the province to continue funding

Advocates of a supervised injection site in Hamilton are waiting in limbo for the province to decide whether it will continue to fund such services in Ontario.

A temporary overdose prevention service downtown has provincial funding to operate until Nov. 30. After that, the hope was to establish a permanent site.

But Premier Doug Ford’s newly elected Progressive Conservative government has said it is reviewing whether it will continue to fund these harm-reduction services.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger said the city continues to advocate for a permanent supervised injection service in Hamilton.

“It’s an appropriate time to reach out once again and let them know what our view is as a city,” Eisenberger said Thursday, noting correspondence will be sent to provincial officials.

This week, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the government is reviewing evidence to decide whether safe injection and overdose prevention sites “have merit.”

Elliott said the province expects to make a decision in the weeks to come about sites that are soon to run their course and will determine the fate of the program overall afterward.

The first casualty could be a temporary overdose prevention site in London, Ont., which would close in mid August should its funding not be renewed.

If there’s a gap in services due to a funding interruption, the fallout in Hamilton would be immediate, says Denise Brooks, the executive director of Urban Core, the health centre that hosts the overdose prevention site.

“Everything is at risk the very next day,” Brooks said.

In June, the site received 112 visits with the number rising steadily every week, she said, noting staff are building trust and familiarity with clients.

“Deaths have been prevented. There’s good work being done.”

In the first three weeks of the temporary site at Urban Core, a partnership with the Shelter Health Network, staff responded to eight opioid poisonings. Only one required emergency room treatment.

Supervised injection sites are also credited for reducing the spread of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C by providing clean needles.

Last year, 87 people died of opioid overdoses in Hamilton, a mortality rate that was 72 per cent than that of the province. Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that can be mixed with heroin, carfentanil, which is even more potent, and crystal meth are the main culprits.

“For most people it’s not a visible problem, but it’s significant,” said Eisenberger, who struck a mayor’s task force to tackle the crisis. “We know, left unattended, it can grow significantly as well.”

Would-be sites require clearances from the province as well as the federal government. The latter must provide an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but funding flows from Queen’s Park.

“A community like Hamilton should be rallying to support the opening of these clinics,” said Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

“Does Hamilton want to see people dying in the streets ... or do we want to have a clinic where people can go and be supervised to be safe?”

The professional association released evidence-based guidelines in February on how to most effectively run supervised injection services to strengthen what it calls a “life-saving service.”

“We have an opioid crisis on our hands,” Grinspun said. “We can’t afford to see people dying simply because they don’t have access to supervised injection services.”

A Ministry of Health spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

In Hamilton, the plan has been to establish a permanent site once the temporary service ceases to operate.

A few agencies, including Urban Core, Wesley Urban Ministries and De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre, are pursuing permanent services.

Only De dwa da dehs nye>s has a proposal under federal review, according to a government website that displays the status of open applications across the country.

Elliott’s remarks come after Ford declared he was “dead against” supervised injection sites during his election campaign. A spokesperson later said Ford has “made his personal thoughts known” but would consult experts.

Brooks said she hopes Urban Core and its partners are consulted.

“Certainly we would like to be able to join the conversation,” she said.

Grinspun said the nurses’ association will be active in convincing the PC government to continue funding the province’s current sites and pay for new sites like those proposed in Hamilton.

“We need to do more not less in this area of prevention, protection and support for people that suffer addictions,” she said. “It’s an illness. It needs to be understood as such and supported as such. We need to do everything we can do, as we do with cancer and anything else, to prevent death.”