Ottawa's opioid death data nearly a year out of date

Public health officials in Ottawa have no firm idea how many people have died of opioid overdoses this year, CBC News has learned.

The city doesn't track drug-related deaths, relying instead on the province to pass along data based on reports it receives from the regionalcoroner.

Those reports cantake months to complete, but Ottawa Public Health (OPH) confirmed it hasn'tseen any new data since December 2016, making the agency'slatest figures on opioiddeaths nearly a year out of date.

"Mortality data is always an important part of looking at the bigger picture, but it is only one part," said Andrew Hendriks,OPH's director for health protection.

"And so we look at morbidity-related issues [such as]substance use, overdoses, non-fatal overdoses. So you have to piece all that data together."

The regional supervising coroner for Ottawa told CBCshe has submitted the figures for opioid-relateddeaths that occurred as recently as this summer to the province.

CBC requested that information directly from the coroner, but was told Monday it would take several days to produce.

Only partial data available

The province recently stated there were 336 opioid-related deaths across Ontario from May to July 2017, up from 201 duringthe same period last year. Howeverthe province hasn'treleased a geographic breakdown of those 336 deaths, soofficials here have no idea of the scope of crisis in their own city.

In turn, Public Health Ontario's interactiveopioidtrackerattributes the regional data it collects including the number of deaths dueto opioidoverdoseto OPH. The tracker currently has no data for deaths in Ottawa in 2017.

The lack of available information doesn't appear to bother OPH, however.

"It takes a while for coroners to do their investigationsand make sure they provide accurate and high-quality data to us and that's really the most important thing," Hendriks told CBC News on Monday.

"We're not sitting and waiting on any data point. Our focus and responsibility is being out on the ground, onthe front lines, and responding toopioidoverdoses in our community."

Tracking ER visits

The city does tracksuspected drug-related hospital visits, and estimates more than 2,500 emergency room visitsso far in 2017 have been opioid-related.

Howeverfront-line workers say few overdoses result in 911 calls because drug users still fear legal repercussions, so those hospital visits could represent the tip of the iceberg.

While "fresh" 2017 data already months old is expectedsoon, no numbers will be released for January to April. That's because the coronerchanged the procedure for toxicology reportingin May, renderingearlier autopsies inconclusive.

"Last year we understood the theory of the opioid crisis. We're living it now," Wendy Muckle, executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health, said Friday.

Mucklesaidno one was expecting the opioid crisis to hit Ottawa this hard, this fast.

Fentanyl deaths quadrupled

Meanwhile workers with a street-level view of theopioidcrisis say they'reworried about the lack of currentdata.

This fall alone I've gone to I don't know how many funerals.- Stan Kupferschmidt, harm reduction worker

Fentanyldeaths in Ottawahave almost quadrupled from five in 2013 to 18 last year, according to the data that is available.

Deadly fentanyland carfentanilhave been found in drugs seized by Ottawa police, and a bad batch laced with the additives could kill dozens in a matter of weeks. With the delay in releasing death statistics, there is no opportunity to warnusers of bad drugs currently in circulation, experts say.

"Just because of how slowly things have moved, we're always trying to stay one step ahead, but we're always one step behind," said Stan Kupferschmidt, a harm reduction worker at Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC).

He told CBCNews SWCHCis aware offour people who've died in the last three weeks alone, and peer workers are reversing as many as 15 overdoses each night.

"This fall alone I've gone to I don't know how many funerals."