Frontline workers and public health authorities are calling for urgent action to reach London’s drug-using population, which is unaffected by existing services, and are seeking provincial organisation approval for a mobile controlled drug use site after five suspected drug overdose deaths in the city within six days.

Five London fatalities between March 30 and April 4 bring the total number of suspected overdose deaths in the region to at least nine in less than a week – a total that does not take into account the number of police and paramedic overdoses across southwestern Ontario successfully reversed.

London police responded to at least three suspected overdoses over the weekend. All three people survived, police said.

On Saturday, St. Thomas police found a man without vital signs of a suspected fentanyl overdose. It took CPR and three doses of the opioid antidote naloxone to revive him.

In Elgin-St. Thomas, paramedics have been seeing a significant increase in the number of overdose calls they have responded to in recent weeks, but that doesn’t paint a complete picture of the drug crisis, says Allison Crossett, Deputy chief of operations at EMS Elgin Ontario.

“Often we don’t get in touch with patients because they self-administer naloxone and then they don’t… get a call to duty, ” she said. “We would like to come and support the patient, but we don’t always see them.”

London has established a coordinated community response to the opioid crisis and a city-controlled drug use site has saved lives, but existing services are not reaching the vulnerable sector of the drug-using population, chief health officer Chris Mackie said.

This group may include drug users who are socially isolated, distrustful of community resources, and drug-related infectious diseases who have other contacts with public health officials.

“It has become very clear with some of the situations we have seen, they are not the ones that can come through the door of a traditional service. . . . We need new models to get to high-risk people. We have to innovate, ” Maki said. “We do a lot of outreach, but we have to go to places that we are not currently reaching.”

The middlesex-London health unit and its partner the HIV / AIDS Regional link, which runs the city’s controlled drug use facility, are awaiting a response from the province on their application to launch a mobile version of the site.

The van will complement the existing facility at 186 King St., which is expected to move to a permanent home at 446 York St. prior to the results of the appeal to the Ontario local planning Appeals Tribunal, formerly the Ontario municipal Council.

A mobile controlled drug use site will be set up for hours each day in pre-determined locations across the city, a “game-changer” in how harm reduction services are delivered, said regional HIV / AIDS connection Council President David Smith.

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