It's been a year since New Dawn Medical opened. Finally 'concrete action,' councillor says

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A combination of reasons pushed Liam Cleary to move out of his Chinatown apartment, which was in the same building as New Dawn Medical, but the clinic operations and the scenes at the doorsteps of his building certainly fast-tracked his decision to go.

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“I heard from others in the neighbourhood (of) some people who have left, and I’m aware of others who want to leave,” Cleary said in an interview.

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City calls on province to take action

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At a May 27 city council meeting, Troster introduced a motion calling on the Province of Ontario to take action by adopting stricter regulations for virtual-care models for addiction treatment in Ottawa.

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The motion passed unanimously.

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“We want stronger oversight of these clinics and more and better treatment options for people to help try to solve this problem at its root,” Troster said at the meeting.

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Troster added that a proliferation of private addiction clinics such as New Dawn Medical and “high-volume pharmacies” were prescribing a drug called hydromorphone to people with “serious addictions” under the rubric of safe supply.

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In the past couple of years, Troster said, Ottawa saw “an explosion of private businesses” that were administering these prescriptions with almost no follow-up care.

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“The previous doctor from Northwood Recovery billed $2.5 million to OHIP one year as the sole doctor,” Troster said. “This is leading to an explosion of diversion of these medications because they’re often not strong enough for the addictions that people have and they’re being used as currency to sell street drugs.”

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Residents asking for stronger measures

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Javier Salazar, who also lives in the same building as New Dawn Medical, says stronger measures are necessary that focuse on ensuring that clinics providing these services also have proper accountability, supervision and follow-up care.

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“There needs to be more emphasis on stabilization, mental-health support, addiction treatment and monitoring of patients who may not be in a condition to safely leave the clinic on their own,” Salazar said.

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Salazar says there is also a need for more consideration for the impacts on the surrounding community when services are concentrated in one area.

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“One of the saddest parts of this situation is the idea that people may be profiting from the suffering and struggles of other human beings,” he said.

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Nik Sydor, a resident of another Chinatown neighbourhood for a decade, said open drug use became an issue in the neighbourhood after Northwood Recovery — then New Dawn Medical — opened.

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“Almost immediately after it opened, I started seeing people doing drugs right in front of the building and on the corners around there, including right beside where I live,” Sydor said.

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Sydor said he liked the proposed motion that was passed by city council, but did not think it went far enough. He argued it needed to be all-encompassing in terms of both for-profit and publicly funded clinics.

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He said the provincially funded HART Hub that replaced the supervised consumption site at the Somerset West Community Health Centre seemed to attract similar activity.

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“Things have certainly been getting worse over the years, and I feel that the opening of the Northwood/New Dawn clinic in the area contributed to and exacerbated an already bad situation,” Sydor said.

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The past few weeks have been a bit better than the same time last year, according to Sydor. He attributed the positive change to increased police presence and foot patrols in the area.