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It’s the largest loss of the deadly opiate known as “fentanyl” at Island Health in the past five years.
Officials says the drug disappeared late last year from Royal Jubilee Hospital, but can’t say how it went missing, or by whom.
“An individual was expecting to see it show up, and they discovered it didn’t arrive,” said Richard Jones, Director of Pharmacy Services for Island Health. “An investigation was launched immediately and we prepared a report based on that investigation as a required by-federal law and submitted it to Health Canada.”
Victoria Police told CTV News their policy is that any hospital drug losses should be reported to them.
Jones also said the amount of fentanyl contained in the liquid is very small, but stopped short of confirming an exact number of micrograms.
It remains unclear how it went missing at this point.
Provincial Health Authorities have been struggling with overdoses in the first seven months of this year with 400 people dead from illicit overdoses.
In 62 percent of those deaths, fentanyl has been detected.
It is also unclear if there will be a police investigation at this point.
Agencies/Canadajournal
