One of Canada's top addiction experts has resigned after complaining about inadequate resources available to treat patients addicted to opiates.
Dr. Lindy Lee resigned as the director of the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Lee said that she could not keep up with the increasing demand for opiate detox and addiction services. Lee became frustrated and disillusioned with the lack of support from health officials. She was swamped with requests to assess more opiate addicts who are ending up in the emergency room, surgical and obstetrical wards.
Lee said the problem has "exploded" to the point where it is impossible to see patients within a two week period. Some addicts have died before getting a basic medical assessment. She said she has asked multiple times for resources to support a community-based assessment and opiate detox program, but her cries for help went unanswered.
"Things weren't going to change if I just continued to plug the holes," Lee said. "The number of patients I was seeing kept going up and up. I don't think it's peaked in Winnipeg and the problem in rural Manitoba is increasing."
Local officials fear Lee's resignation will have a negative affect on local addiction treatment services. The hospital ward is the only medical opiate detox unit in Winnipeg. Lee also played an integral role in stabilizing opiate addicts forced to wait between six and 12 months to get in for methadone treatment.
Lee's resignation comes at a time when more patients need opiate detox and many addicts are dying before they receive help.
"It's going to have a huge impact and not a positive one, that's for sure," said Laurie Magee, director of Addictions Foundation of Manitoba's methadone intervention program. "I think the hospital is going to suffer a big loss."
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokewoman Heidi Graham said the hospital's addiction unit will not close in Lee's absence. Graham said that they are looking for Lee's replacement.
Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau lauded Lee's work and said Manitoba is focusing on long-term solutions to combat opiate addiction. Rondeau believes that the demand for treatment services will decline at some point.
"It would be nice to have unlimited resources and it would be nice to have a Band-Aid. However, what we did is we looked at a long-term fix that would solve the system over a long period of time."
The recent increase in opiate abuse led to the government in Manitoba to restrict the number of OxyContin prescription and, in turn, the demand for opiate detox services. That did not work and the rise in opiate abuse has lengthened the waiting list for addicts. The number of people waiting for opiate detox rose to 180 people from 150 in the last three months. As a result of this increase, it could conceivably take up to a year for someone to get treatment.
Lee said the opiate abuse epidemic did not exist in Winnipeg when she first became head of the addiction unit in 2003. She said she decided to resign because she was emotionally and physically exhausted. She plans to continue her work with patients struggling with an addiction to opiates.
