Six years ago today, on April 14, 2016, Public Health Officials took the significant step of using the Public Health Act to formally declare the overdose crisis a public health emergency.
Northern BC residents will have ongoing opportunities to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as community pharmacies and Northern Health vaccine clinics work together to improve and maintain immunization rates in the region.
The Prince George COVID-19 vaccine clinic is moving to a new location in Parkwood Place Shopping Centre, merging with the current COVID-19 testing location to form the “Prince George COVID-19 Testing & Immunization Centre”.
March 29, 2022 update:
There has been an increase in overdose events in the community of Fort St John. The reported substances have been referred to in anecdotal reports as “blue meth”, “green heroin”, and “speed bennys”.
Northern Health is re-establishing an orthopedic surgical service in Fort St. John to enable a higher level trauma centre and more complex orthopedic surgery to be provided in Northeast BC. Orthopedic surgical services will be increased in Fort St. John, together with other trauma-related specialties including Critical Care, Internal Medicine, and General Surgery.
As we all know, providing healthcare services in small communities comes with unique challenges. One of these challenges is balancing the services provided in a community, the demand for those services, and the staff needed to keep those services running.
Recently, there have been concerns raised around changes to healthcare services in Fort Nelson. We would like to provide some additional information around these changes and the reasons behind them to help better understand the work underway to reduce impact to health services.
There has been an increase in overdose events in the community of Terrace. The reported substance is dark purple/blue chalky substance, sold as down.
This substance is highly toxic, causes heavy and prolonged sedation, and requires more naloxone to reverse. Overdoses are happening when the substance is smoked and injected.
A new mobile overdose prevention service is now operating in Fort St. John to support people who use substances and help prevent toxic drug poisonings and toxic drug deaths.
