After hearing from the Interior Health Authority the mayor of Kamloops is optimistic his called for paradigm shift in dealing with the overdose crisis is coming.

Last week Ken Christian called for things like dispensing hydromorphone to treat addicts and drive down the death toll.

Christian says he is confident that it will happen but he adds it will take time.

“We talked about opioid antagonist therapy. Certainly Dr. Golmohammadi is experimenting with some of that in Kelowna. It is difficult because you need a dispensing pharmacist. You need medical professionals there to operate those kinds of clinics and those kinds of trained professionals really are not that readily available just yet. This epidemic is just getting bigger and bigger.”

Christian says Interior Health needs to focus on the hot spots within the region.

“Certainly in Kelowna and Kamloops where they really see a huge number of fatalities those are the places, the hot spots, and if you can make a difference here you should be able to push that out across the Interior Health network.”

But Christian says there is also plenty of room for improvement especially with Kamloops only having 40 care beds for addicts.

“We need to have beds available when people are ready to seek treatment that sweet spot in terms of timing. You have to be able to accommodate them when they make that decision to leave that lifestyle.”

He says there is a waiting list for those beds noting they are open to addicts from the entire health region not just Kamloops.