Opioid related overdoses, deaths down for third consecutive year in Middlesex-London

A new report indicates local emergency room visit rates and death rates due to opioid toxicity have declined for the third year in a row. Bryan Bicknell reports

Opioid related deaths and emergency department visits related to opioids continued a downward trend in 2024 in Middlesex-London.

That’s the finding of the Public Health Opioid Report released Wednesday by the Middlesex London Health Unit.

“We need to continue to have more robust access to addiction services, as we’re seeing at the RAAM Clinic (Rapid Access Addiction Medicine). We need to continue to have access to consumption and treatment facilities where we can keep people alive. At the end of the day, in the absence of those services, they will die,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Alex Summers, providing a sobering prognosis of the opioid crisis still gripping the region.

Summers says while positive trends are emerging, the latest figures show there continues to be an uphill battle.

According to the public health report, local emergency department visits related to opioids were down by more than 55 per cent in 2024 from their peak during the pandemic in 2021.

“Rates have declined for the third year in a row to 90.7 per 100,000 in 2024,” the report reads.

Despite the decrease, emergency departments still treated 491 opioid-related poisonings.

The report also shows there were 72 opioid related deaths in 2024, representing 12.1 per 100,000 people, and a 51 per cent decrease from the peak in 2021.

“It is remarkable what we have accomplished given the resources that we have. And we’ve accomplished that because of people doing good work, relentless work, day-in, day-out,” said Summers.

Summers was joined by others on the frontlines of the opioid crisis.

They were unified in their call for sustained provincial and federal funding for preventative health interventions and surveillance initiatives.

“To keep this momentum going, I’d offer that we need sustained provincial support for evidence-based additions care,” said Scott Courtice, executive director of the London InterCommunity Health Centre.

Dr. Ken Lee of CMHA Thames Valley Mental and Addiction Services shared progress being made at the RAAM Clinic with a treatment called Sublocade, which blocks out the effects of opioids.

“We have now treated about, let’s say a thousand patients with Sublocade, and I am hopeful that it is a contributing factor to the decrease in overdose rates,” said Lee.

London Police Chief Thai Truong provided an update on the open-air substance use strategy, which is currently in the first phase of a pilot.

He says the London Police Service (LPS) is on track for a record year in fentanyl seizures, impacting organized crime and street-level opioid-related deaths.

“If you think about the seizures that our people have received, and have stopped from hitting the streets, these are deaths that are prevented,” he said.

During the Q&A session of the report’s release, the police chief also used the opportunity to make a pitch to keep the police budget intact.

Recently, the London Police Services Board voted to shave $1.5 million off the 2026 LPS budget of $195 million. The reduction followed Mayor Josh Morgan’s budget squeeze on city-funded agencies.

“This is a four-year plan that we had asked for commitment from. And I can’t have every single year a reduction in the police budget because something’s gotta give, and we’re trying to really meet the needs of this community,” said Truong.