The Essex County Medical Society is voicing its 'strong support' for the opening of the SafePoint Consumption Service without delay.
The support was issued in an open letter Friday from the president of the society to the community and municipal leaders.
The letter from society president, Dr. Joseph Zakaria, says "launching the SafePoint site would reduce the would reduce the number of opioid related deaths and provide rapid medical treatment to those requiring it on site (such treatments as Naloxone, oxygen, monitoring and first response CPR), thereby drastically reducing the demand on an already strained paramedics and reducing the number of visits on already strained Emergency Departments."
The letter also cites 505 Emergency Department visits for opioid and drug overdose at Windsor Regional Hospital and Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington in 2021, 44 per cent higher than in 2020 (351 visits) and 96 per cent higher than in 2019 (258 visits.) In 2021, there were an unfortunate 86 opioid overdose deaths.
Zakaria says a lot of these medical issues and fatalities from drug consumption are largely preventable.
"If there are good intervention strategies in place, we can keep these people out of the hospital department and keep them alive as well. The intervention is life changing and to see it launched without delay would be important, because as each week goes by we're seeing more strain on the system and more of these fatalities," he says.
The consumption site is designed to provide a safe site to use drugs under supervision and reduce harm and overdoses.
A letter from the Essex County Medical Society regarding the SafePoint Consumption site in Windsor. Feb. 24, 2023
Zakaria says the service needs to be started without delay.
"We really can't afford days and weeks, and even months to go by, because we're just going to see the number of ER visits and deaths steadily rise given the nature of the crisis we're in related to opioid and drug use," he says.
City Council is set to receive a report at the Monday meeting after questions were raised about the funding of the site at 101 Wyandotte St. E., right near Goyeau Street in downtown Windsor.
Officials for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit are expected to be in attendance to answer any questions.
The application and funding request for the SafePoint location needs provincial government approval, something expected by mid-summer, based on the health unit being eight months into the typically year long process.
Health Canada is tentatively scheduled to perform a virtual on-site inspection of the SafePoint location in March, part of the federal approval process.
The federal application could be approved within 30 days following the inspection. If federal approval is granted, the health unit hopes to open SafePoint and pay for it with funding in its operating budget, potential grants, and philanthropic means until provincial funding is approved.