Winnipeg organizations concerned over naloxone kit supply issues
Community organizations in Winnipeg are feeling the strain amid naloxone kit shortages.
Naloxone is a medication used to reverse the effects of opioids, and the short supply could have dire consequences.
For St. Boniface Street Links, an unlikely source has stepped in as a provider of naloxone.
"We actually have our drug users supplying the outreach team rather than the outreach team supplying the drug users. That’s quite a reverse, isn’t it?” said Marion Willis, founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links.
Willis said the doses are split between two outreach vans as the organization waits on its first naloxone kit shipment from the province's take-home naloxone program.
It was supposed to arrive last Friday but there's a supply chain-related delay. Willis said with every day that goes by the situation gets more frightening.
"Two vials may save a life, but given the drugs out there right now it may not be enough to revive somebody,” she said.
More than a week ago, Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY) told CTV News Winnipeg it was down to 60 doses and didn’t expect those to last very long.
"It's a desperate need and we just don’t have nearly enough of it still,” said Breda Vosters, RaY’s director of grants and information.
Vosters said RaY is still waiting on its naloxone kits, but, in the meantime, it's been able to get some doses of Narcan nasal spray through a nurse practitioner.
"It's a help for sure having this direct line to the WRHA as a solid partner to us is really, really good, but we just simply need so much more,” Vosters said.
The province said it distributed 2,000 kits last week to the highest-need locations. A thousand more have arrived and are meeting orders, and 9,000 more, which will cover all outstanding orders, are expected next week.
"Supply issues are expected to be resolved by the end of next week and the province will continue to have supply to meet the needs of Manitobans,” the province said in a statement.
Willis said she can only hope the few remaining doses will be enough.
"I can only hope the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has better access than we do,” she said.
Last week, a Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service spokesperson said they had received no notifications regarding naloxone shortages.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.