(Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

OVERDOSE EMERGENCY CALLS

B.C. EHS data shows spike in 9-1-1 calls for potential overdoses in Kamloops

Feb 13, 2020 | 4:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — Last month, Kamloops experienced a considerable increase in the amount of suspected overdose calls paramedics responded to.

According to BC Emergency Health Services, Kamloops had 83 calls for potential overdoses for the month of January.

The average number of calls per month to B.C. EHS for possible overdoses in the Kamloops area is around 50, with December of 2019 having 53 calls.

B.C. EHS says the 83 calls during the first month of this year marks the highest monthly count that Kamloops has recorded in over a year. In 2019, Kamloops saw 613 total calls put in for suspected overdoses.

(See below: Annual 9-1-1 calls for potential overdoses over the last five years within Kamloops)

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Image Credit: CFJC Today / BC EHS

In an email to CFJC Today, B.C. EHS says the overdose call volume in B.C. has remained steady for the last three years, but is incredibly high compared to the years before the overdose crisis began.

The province-wide call count was recorded at 1,838 calls for January, which B.C. EHS says is average for B.C. Over the course of last year, paramedics responded to more than 24,000 overdose calls across the province.

Emergency Health Services also stresses the importance of not using alone, and calling 9-1-1 if someone may be experiencing an overdose. It notes that when paramedics respond to a potential overdose, the patient has a 99 per cent chance of survival.

While the latest overdose fatality statistics will not be available until later on this month, the B.C. Coroners Service says that since the start of 2016, close to 5,000 people in British Columbia have died due to illicit drug overdoses.