Fire crews spending more time in DTES handling opioid overdoses
Posted June 2, 2016 2:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Firefighters are spending a lot more time on the Downtown Eastside reviving people overdosing on opioids.
They’re responding to about 30 per cent more medical calls than they did this time last year.
Firefighters are often the first ones on scene when a call about an overdose comes in.
And they now carry the opioid anti-dote naloxone.
“Most medical calls we were navigating over to the medic unit and not the engine unit. And we have two 4-person units there. Now it’s going to be about a 50/50 split. That’s going to be some help.”
They’re happy to be able to save lives, but firefighters stationed on the Downtown Eastside are feeling overworked.
Thankfully, Vancouver Fire Chief John McKearny says the public health emergency declared over the opioid problem in BC is allowing for better coordination of resources.
“We notice there’s about a 25 per cent volume of calls that our units were called off because EMS got there ahead of us. We’re look at technology to kind of figure that out.”
He says the current way of managing these overdoses isn’t sustainable and more changes are coming.
Vancouver firefighters are feeling the effects of the rash of opioid overdoses, calls to help on the Downtown Eastside are way up.
