Sault makes list of Canadian cities with highest opioid poisoning hospitalization rates

Canada’s smaller communities are being hit hardest by the overdose crisis with hospitalization rates for opioid poisoning that are more than double those of larger cities, according to a new analysis from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The analysis looked at opioid hospitalization rates across the country in 2017 and found communities of 50,000 to 99,999 people had rates that were 2.5 times higher than cities with populations over 500,000.

15 cities with a population of 50,000+ with highest rates of opioid poisoning hospitalizations in 2017:

Number of hospitalizations

City	Number of hospitalizations	Age-adjusted rate per 100,000 population
Prince George	43	57.7
Nanaimo	49	57.7
City of Kelowna	69	52.8
City of Brantford	52	52.8
Kamloops	47	51.6
Belleville	23	48.4
Medicine Hat	26	43.8
Sault Ste. Marie	30	43.3
City of Victoria	36	40.4
St. Catharines	54	38.4
Port Coquitlam	23	37.4
City of Thunder Bay	40	37.1
Surrey	178	35.1
Grand Prairie	19	32
Red Deer	33	30.9

Smaller B.C. cities like Nanaimo, Prince George and Kelowna or Ontario cities like Brantford and Belleville had the highest age-adjusted rates per 100,000 people, according to data broken down by census subdivision.

Opioid poisoning occurs when a wrong dosage is taken, it’s combined with another drug or alcohol, or if it was illegally obtained, according to CIHI researchers. The surge in overdose deaths nationally that has killed more than 9,000 since 2016 has largely been attributed to the rise of illicit fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids.

Across Canada, the fastest-growing rates of hospitalizations due to opioid poisoning were seen among males age 25 to 44. Other findings from the analysis show the rate of hospitalizations for neonatal opioid withdrawal symptoms increased by 21 per cent between 2013 and 2017.

Looking at the national picture, hospitalization rates for opioid overdoses have increased in provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, but have decreased in provinces like Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, P.E.I and New Brunswick, according to CIHI.

Researchers with CIHI attributed the decreases in part to a number of Canada wide initiatives that included new opioid prescribing guidelines, an increase in the number of supervised consumption sites and better provincial prescription monitoring.

“We are seeing a lot of positive initiatives put in place and it does take time for the data to reflect that,” said Krista Louie, manager of opioid reporting with CIHI. “Between the end of last year and the beginning of this year, we are seeing a slight decrease nationally. We can’t know for sure whether that trend will continue but it is a positive.”

However, new numbers from the Public Health Agency of Canada showed more than 2,000 Canadians lost their lives to apparent opioid overdoses in the first half of 2018 — or more than 11 people a day. Of the deaths reported between January and June, 94 per cent were the result of accidental overdoses and 72 per cent involved fentanyl-related substances.

“This indicates the continuing role of fentanyl contamination of the street drug supply in this crisis, highlighting the vital importance of increasing access to a safer supply of drugs to prevent death and other harms,” the health agency said in a statement.

In B.C., 734 people died of opioid-related overdoses while Ontario saw 638 deaths and Alberta saw 379. The new numbers also showed that life expectancy in Canada, which increased by almost three years between 2000 and 2016, has slowed partly due to the dramatic rise in opioid-related deaths.

CIHI’s analysis also looked at emergency department visits for opioid poisoning in Alberta, Ontario and Yukon and found that rates increased in Ontario 73 per cent from 5,958 to 8,834 and in 23 per cent in Alberta from 2,402 to 4,359.

The five Ontario cities with the highest ED visits for opioid poisonings were Brantford, St. Catharines-Niagara, Peterborough and Barrie.

On Monday night, MPs in Ottawa convened a debate on Canada’s opioid crisis that looked at solutions such as declaring a public health emergency or coming up with more funding for treatment beds.

The federal Budget 2018 set aside $231.4 million to tackle the crisis, with $150 million going to the provinces and territories to fight the overdose crisis, while opposition parties criticized the Liberals saying there needs to be more money for addiction and treatment services.