Health Unit issues correction after miscalculating opioid-related death numbers
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit mistakenly calculated the number of opioid-related deaths in a recent report by counting deaths in Windsor twice.
The report, which stated 43 people in Windsor and Essex County had died after using opioids — a 190 per cent increase over eight years and double the provincial average — was incorrect, according to associate medical officer of health Wajid Ahmed.
The correct number of deaths is 24, with 19 in Windsor and five in the county.
The mistake came after staff from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario supplied statistics for Windsor-Essex showing there were 24 deaths. The confusion occurred when the coroner's office also sent along numbers showing 19 deaths in Windsor.
The health unit added both figures, not realizing the coroner's office considered Windsor-Essex and the City of Windsor to be the same thing.
"They see Windsor-Essex as a whole and reported it as Essex," explained Wajid. "But we … living in Windsor, know Windsor and Essex are different so logically it made sense to add those two numbers up."
The health unit only recently learned of the error and has taken the report down until they can confirm all of its findings.
"We feel it's an obligation to our community that when we find an error we need to report it to the community in the best possible way," said Ahmed.
Despite the much lower number of deaths, Windsor-Essex is still facing a serious battle with opioids, he added.
"We still have a problem of opioids in our region," he said, pointing to the level of prescriptions, hospitalization rates and emergency room visits related to the use of the drugs.
"All those indicators point that we do have a problem … all the other numbers are definitely suggesting that we still have a huge problem and need to take action to correct that problem."
