A new walk-in clinic for people with opioid addictions and other health issues including HIV and hepatitis C is opening in the Downtown Eastside.
The clinic, called Connections, will be accessible through a door on the alley at an expanded Hope to Health Research Centre at 625 Powell. People will be able to walk into the basement clinic and, without first seeing a doctor, get medication for HIV and hepatitis C, as well as methadone and suboxone for opioid addictions. Take home naxolone kits for treating overdoses from opioids such as fentanyl will also be available.
At Connections, where one wall of the clinic is a colourful mural by indigenous artist Jerry Whitehead, people can be referred to treatment, counselling and other health services.
Connections and an eye clinic are expected to open this spring.
The clinic is part of a bigger effort to take the successful techniques developed by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in reducing the spread of HIV and treating AIDS and apply them to combating the current opioid crisis and a looming one in viral hepatitis.
“We are the grip of a public health crisis – more than 900 people lost their lives to illicit drug overdoses in 2016,” said Health Minister Terry Lake, during the official opening of the $2 million expansion of the Hope to Health Research Centre on Thursday.
He said research developed at the centre into addictions, hepatitis C and HIV has the potential to be put to use throughout the province.
Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDs, said the centre’s success in dealing with HIV and AIDS allowed it to build a strong addiction medicine component.