By CFJC Today/Ashley Legassic

Prince George Has One Of The Highest Rates Of Opioid Hospitlizations In The Country

Dec 12, 2018 | 3:50 PM

KAMLOOPS —  Among communities with populations ranging from 50,000 to 99,000, Prince George has one of the highest opioid hospitalization rates in the country.

A new report released by the Public Health Agency of Canada today (Dec. 12) shows five B.C. communities in the top 10 on this list, including Prince George, Kelowna and Kamloops.

For 2017, Prince George had an opioid hospitalization rate of nearly 58 per 100,000, higher than communities like Victoria, Port Coquitlam, Thunder Bay, Ont., and Surrey. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released data on hospitalizations and emergency department visits due to opioid poisonings.

In the first half of this year, more than 2,000 people in the country have lost their lives to overdose, meaning more than 9,000 deaths have occurred in the country between January 2016 and June 2018.

Data released by CIHI shows a 27 per cent increase in hospitalizations due to opioid-related poisonings over the past five years. In 2017, hospitalization rates were 2.5 times higher in small communities, like Kamloops, compared to Canada’s larger cities.

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“The data released today represent individuals who have lost their lives — loved ones who have left behind families, communities, and others who may be struggling with problematic substance use themselves. These numbers are heartbreaking. One death is too many in this tragedy. The data released today will help us to continue to develop strategies to reduce deaths and to better inform public health interventions and policies for us all,” Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor says in a news release.

For more information on the data released, go here.