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Kelowna’s OD prevention site to close

In May, the OD site will be closed

Kelowna’s brick and mortar overdose prevention site will soon be closed.

The lease on the Ellis Street building is set to change hands in May and Interior Health will have to vacate the premises.

Dr. Trevor Corneil, chief medical offer with Interior Health, said Tuesday that the mobile units that will roll into the city this March will likely fill that gap, although a permanent solution is still being sought.

The health authority is also looking to open a fixed overdose prevention site in Rutland, although the mobile unit will help fill that gap for at least a portion of time each day.

In the meantime, the application for the mobile supervised injection site is almost completed.

It will augment the services already available in the city, but Corneil said that there are some challenges with the model.

“We know the advantage is that we can get to more places and that reflects the geographic spread of users we see in Kelowna,” he said.

“People aren’t using in a ghetto as much as they are using in various spots in the city.”

The downside is that there won’t be something that’s open for 12 hours. Instead there will be something open for six hours twice a day.