Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says the program aim is to connect people in crisis to the appropriate services in their community and take pressure off stretched police resources.
The machines dispense pharmaceutical-grade opioid drugs directly using a biometric scanner, so that people using them don’t need to go to a pharmacy or clinic.
Teresa Zurberg, who runs the program for Vancouver Coastal Health, said the hunting breed of pooches can smell the slightest presence of C. difficile on surfaces and equipment.
The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, has asked for a 35% pay rise to bring junior doctors’ pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account.
‘My instinct was I can’t sit with this. I can’t smell this. I have to get it off and no one was helping me do it. So, I just did it myself,’ the passenger said.
