Since those nine sites were closed across the province one year ago, emergency calls and emergency department visits for opioid related overdoses have sharply increased around Ontario, said Gillian Kolla, a public health researcher with the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L. Emergency medical service calls for opioid-related overdoses increased by 69.5 per cent, and emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses increased by 67 per cent in the months following the closure of the sites.
