A doctor in Nelson, B.C., says after four years of trying to establish a safe supply program through conversations with the local health authority, he is making his frustrations public with hopes it will pressure officials into action.
Michael Vance, a family physician who focuses on addictions, says he’s had multiple meetings about safe supply with Interior Health over the span of four years.
However, the health authority has never committed to providing him with the funding for a nurse, which would allow Vance to adhere to professional recommendations around prescribing safe supply in a team-based setting.
Vance would like to be able to prescribe drugs such as fentanyl, sufentanil, and morphine, which are allowed under B.C.’s safe supply program. He says the prescribed drugs would help people get off an increasingly toxic street supply, which has already resulted in a number of fatal overdoses in Nelson and the West Kootenay region this year.
