Family & Addiction Medicine @ MOSH and Direction 180 in Halifax. Harm Reduction Saves Lives. A Toronto sports fanatic and big time food taster! Dad of 3!
Tonight one of my patients died of a drug poisoning in a tent in downtown Halifax. He was an amazing person, a father, he was inspiring to many in his community and he had his whole life ahead of him. I’m really torn up over this one.
NS Public Health confirms what we have been seeing in
#NovaScotia
. An increase in drug poisonings due to fentanyl and highly dangerous contaminated drugs on the unregulated market. I suggest accessible drug testing and a Safer Supply for those who need it.
…overdoses are rising even as teen drug use is declining. The % of teens using drugs is at its lowest point in almost 50 years. Drug use isn't more common: It's more dangerous. Fentanyl is the reason.
Out today: New analysis on teen overdoses in
@NEJM
Overdoses hit an all-time high in 2022, killing the equivalent of a high school classroom of teens each week across the US
Overdoses now the 3rd leading cause of death in kids
I care for these teens. Here's what's needed 🧵 1/
The fentanyl crisis has become just be a buzz word. We continue to see thousands of Canadians die from a toxic unregulated drug market. Safer Opioid Supply (SOS) offers one possible solution - see our letter outlining how SOS can help, based on Canadian research, not storytelling
Amidst worsening drug poisoning crisis, Canada must show leadership to stop the deaths.
Read the release here:
Read the letter to government officials and see the list of signatories here:
Completed the AIME airway (
@kovacsgj
) course today in Halifax. Feeling more comfortable and confident than ever for my next rural ED shift in Liverpool, NS! Highly recommend to all GPs who manage acute airways every now and then
@DlPrivatewealth
@brianlilley
@JustinTrudeau
When you have the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet a national leader, you have to dress up! Couldn't roll up in my scrubs from my last night shift.
After 2 consecutive years collaborating on Christmas Day, I chucked at this message from a local pharmacist hero. Merry Christmas to all of the front line workers out there today - especially community pharmacists, who open their doors each and every day!
I doubt the person, or people, responsible will ever read this, but just in case, please stop vandalizing my property and harassing/threatening my right to participate in our Canadian democracy. It’s ok that we have different views! What isn’t ok is continuing to deface...
We have a small pilot Safer Supply program, but it is not meeting the needs of the community. The waitlist is larger than the number of participants. We need to scale up and get ahead of this crisis before more people die.
#SafeSupply
Addiction clinicians of Nova Scotia!
Come & learn from Dr. Christy Sutherland
@PHS_PrimaryCare
“Updates in opioid agonist therapy: buprenorphine-naloxone home inductions, early carries, microdosing & more”
Wed, Aug 7th @ 6:30pm
The Open Door
68 Highfield Park Dr., Dartmouth
Is it just me or does a ‘long weekend’ have a whole new meaning now that we have to cook, clean, bathe, and play for/with another person. I do love being a dad though!
@globalhalifax
The debate is being created by the media. In the eyes of health care professionals there isn’t a debate. Creating this debate will lead to less vaccinated people and more illness and death.
Wrote in
@VancouverSun
w/ some of my fellow UBC med students re: arrest of DULF's leaders & in support of their life-saving work!
People who use drugs are the experts, and we need to now more than ever to recognize that.
#DULFsaveslives
#safesupplynow
How to prepare for a hurricane in Nova Scotia: 1) Fill your propane 2) Bring in your patio furniture 3) Buy storm chips 4) charge your devices 5) PULL THE PINS OUT OF THE CRANES
And for questions about the details and evidence surrounding safer supply, see this recent release from my colleagues and I. It addresses (through the use of peer reviewed evidence) a lot of the concerns presented by those in opposition.
In NS we have easy to control boarders. We are isolating those entering. If we remain isolated for 14 days after cases stop occurring then we should beat this? Right? Question is, how much damage has already occurred...stay tuned the next 7-10d...
#NovaScotia
#COVID19NS
In NS we need more options for people who use opioids. We have pretty robust OAT (in central zone) but this does not and will not meet the needs of everyone. We need access to more Safer Opioid Supply and iOAT.
Absolutely love this philosophy at
@OldRoadBBQ
- we need more fair chance employers, looking at people’s future potential and not their past mistakes!!
Coronavirus outbreak, Italy:
March 12: 15,113 cases
March 8: 7,375 cases
March 4: 3,089 cases
February 29: 1,128 cases
February 25: 323 cases
February 21: 20 cases
February 17: 3 cases
Big crowd learning about innovative collab interprofessional team in Spryfielfd (w my former
@DalMedSchool
resident!) APP model, group visits & allied working to scope led to ⬆️capacity ⬇️wait times. Pd vacation😊Shared provider space w snacks a key strategy.
@NSHAResearch
@StreetoutreachR
@goonda13
Probably the ‘naloxone resistant’ fentanyl, which is likely fentanyl mixed with +++ other sedatives (which naloxone cannot reverse). Naloxone will work on the fentanyl part only.
I am interested to see the updated numbers. The NS reported number is accurate as of Nov 30, but results can be delayed by 1-2 months. I also await the tox reports to further confirm what is causing the increase in poisonings.
I am happy for this, Cape Breton deserves this (at minimum). But I can’t help but think how much more the province needs LTC beds, that will open up acute care beds, ER rooms, save us money, and reduce ER wait times.
A 🧵
Please read and retweet. The state of healthcare in Nova Scotia.
@TimHoustonNS
.
"On Thursday June 15, 2023 around 9:00pm, the Middleton Fire Department and EHS were paged to a cardiac arrest. The address given was the Soldiers Memorial Hospital Emergency Department. 1/7
270 million increase in health care budget is much needed. Adding more collab primary care centres, EHS numbers and residency positions is great. IMO still think more LTC beds needed to ‘unclog’ the hospitals and ERs.
#NSBudget19
Today Finance Min. Karen Casey delivered our 4th consecutive balanced budget. Our fiscal management allows us to invest more in important areas like hiring more health professionals, opening more pre-primary classes & working to reduce poverty.
#NSBudget19
what’s on my property and making my family and I feel uncomfortable showing our support for a candidate in our federal election.
Over the past 3 weeks I have had 6 separate episodes of vandalism to political signs. Sometimes it’s just people writing ‘No’ or sticking gum on the..
@tylabetke
If government follows the science I think travel will be possible to provinces once vaccinated. Question becomes does 75% population need 2 doses or 1 before fully vaccinated people can travel.
@NHL
should target opening day each year on Canadian Thanksgiving - Quadruple header - imagine: Sens v Bruins at 1, Leafs v Habs at 4, Flames v Oilers at 7, Jets v Canucks at 10. What a day it would be!
@TSN_Sports
@Sportsnet
@spittinchiclets
@Coll_YHZ
@tomayers2262
@nshealth
@TimHoustonNS
The whole thing is a mess. Imagine being elderly, without wifi/computer/phone or otherwise vulnerable. Impossible solution to access healthcare for many, but especially the most vulnerable Nova Scotians
"The current criminal justice-based framework in B.C. and in Canada creates barriers to accessing treatment services. It keeps people at home, not talking about their drug use, using alone and dying"
Now that pandemic measures are being lifted, how expensive is rent about to get? And, now that a large portion of Europe’s oil supply will be cut off from Russia, how expensive is gas about to get? Going to have a major impact on many, unless there is a plan to help by gov’t.
@rod_alive
Has there been any study looking at appropriate usage of ER departments? Seems like a good place to start. Perhaps there is a way to identify what can wait for an urgent care clinic to open in communities and what needs true advanced ER care. Would need to make those clinics tho.
What responsibility do health care professionals have in speaking out against misinformation online? I have been reading so much false information regarding vaccination and covid-19 that I have trouble sitting idle. The spread of false information to the public is so... 1/2