B.C. paramedics get $5M boost to fight fentanyl crisis

The B.C. government says it will provide $5 million to help paramedics and dispatchers better respond to the deepening fentanyl crisis.

The money will add resources to help paramedics in twocrucial geographic areas Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and a high overdose area in Surrey where help ismost needed, Health Minister Terry Lake told B.C. Almanac host GloriaMacarenko on Friday.

The money will also help to putparamedics on bikes andATVsto help them get to hard-to-navigate areas, Lake said.

"Werecognize our paramedicshave been working tremendously hard for the better part of a year," the minister said.

"Thishas been very hard on them and we want to make sure we are supportingthem insaving lives."

• 'A small Band-Aid on a big cut': Vancouver firefighters race to revive fentanyl addicts

Over the last week B.C. had the highest number of overdose-related 911 calls ever recorded, Lake noted, with a particularly high spike in the Lower Mainland.

Lake said B.C. paramedics have "literally saved hundreds of lives over the last year."

In addition to more medical support andputting paramedics on bikes and ATVs, the money will also provide:

• More supervisory support to helpparamedics and dispatchers with triaging.
• Expand the Vancouver dispatch centre's ability to monitor and triage complex cases to further support paramedics.

In a statement, B.C.'s Emergency Health Services executive vice president Linda Lupiniwelcomed the announcement, saying the funding will allow them "to make sure we can respond to the unprecedented number of overdose patients adequately."

Fentanyloverdose deaths have skyrocket across Canada this year and nowkill more Canadians than car crashes, according to recent coroners reports.

This year approximately two people have died every day in B.C. from accidental drug overdoses, and 62 per cent of those cases arelinked to fentanyl.

Thepowerful painkiller is said to be up to100 times more potentthan morphine or heroin.