VCH releases 2017 overdose stats

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) has released the final overdose statistics for 2017, but the heath authority is no longer providing a breakdown of overdoses reported by its rural hospitals.

For January to November of 2017 VCH gave the number of overdoses at Sechelt Hospital, Powell River General Hospital, Bella Coola General Hospital and RW Large Memorial Hospital in Bella Bella as well as the percentage of cases where an opioid was involved.

The report for December 2017 gives only the total number of overdoses reported by hospitals throughout the VCH catchment area.

At the request of Coast Reporter, VCH generated a set of statistics in the old format.  They show that from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017, there were 81 overdoses at the rural hospitals and 43 per cent were opioid related;  56 of those overdoses were reported by Sechelt Hospital.

VCH said it’s changing the format of its reports to make them more concise and better protect confidential patient information.

Sunshine Coast medical health officer Dr. Geoff McKee also said VCH still has work to do on consistent reporting of all overdose related data and they are working to improve the system.

“The BC Government’s Joint Task Force on Overdose Prevention and Response is helping to improve monitoring, surveillance and applied research by improving timely data collection, reporting and analysis to inform action, evaluating implementation, and applied research,” McKee said in an email.

2017 was the first full year for which overdose statistics were collected at the VCH rural hospitals. For 2016, reporting started in June, and there were a total of 21 ODs throughout the five sites. It was estimated there were around six fatal ODs on the Sunshine Coast in 2016.

As of June 2017 there were at least two deaths under investigation by the Coroners Service as likely linked to an overdose of opioids or illicit drugs.  The Coroners Service reported a total of 42 illicit drug overdose deaths in the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi health service delivery area last year, with fentanyl suspected in 34 of those cases. 

North Shore/Coast Garibaldi includes North and West Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Powell River, the Sea to Sky region, Bella Bella and Bella Coola. The Coroners Service does not break down the numbers by community.