A new protocol is coming to the Hanover and District Hospital’s ER.
It is in response to the opioid crisis in Ontario.
The Hanover and District Hospital will soon implement a new opioid overdose prevention initiative in partnership with Grey Bruce Public Health.
The program is expected to launch in early April.
Vice President Michelle Scime-Summers says once launched, the ER will provide naloxone kits to overdose patients upon discharge from the Emergency Department.
These patients will receive 1:1 education provided by a physician or nurse, along with a nasal spray naloxone kit(s).
These naloxone kits will be limited to overdose patients being treated and released from the ER.
Naloxone kit distribution centres are already widely available for the general public in a number of retail pharmacies in Hanover and surrounding areas.
Scime-Summers says death from drug-related overdose is a leading cause of accidental death in Ontario.
Like many hospitals across the region, she says the Hanover and District Hospital ER has treated its fair share of opioid overdoses over the last few years.
According to Public Health Ontario between July of 2017 and June of 2018 there were 1,337 confirmed opioid related deaths in Ontario.
By providing naloxone kits to opioid overdose patients upon discharge, Scime-Summers says the Hospital is providing a tool that could very well prove lifesaving.
Naloxone kits are free and available at a number of participating retail pharmacies.
To find out where naloxone kits are available visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/where-get-free-nalonone-kit .