Two months after organizing one of the unsanctioned overdose prevention sites (OPS) that launched a movement across Canada, a British Columbia doctor has resigned from her leadership roles at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and Vancouver Island Health Authority. The decision was made after employers placed her on administrative leave in January, citing concern about her recent public advocacy.
In November 2024, Dr. Jess Wilder cofounded Doctors for Safer Drug Policy (DSDP), whose members ran a week-long unsanctioned OPS outside Nanaimo Regional General. A simultaneous pop-up OPS ran outside a hospital in Victoria. DSDP has since inspired health care workers at hospitals across Canada to plan similar initiatives.
Wilder was the harm reduction and education physician lead at Island Health, as well as the lead for Nanaimo Regional General’s addictions medicine consult service. On January 22, Island Health placed Wilder on administrative leave pending an investigation. The health authority did not respond to Filter’s request for comment.
“At the time, they refused to provide concrete examples of their concerns when directly asked,” Wilder told Filter. “Two weeks later, and there has been ongoing radio silence from Addiction Medicine Substance Use [department] leadership with regards to these concerns.”
She resigned from her positions February 5. Filter was the first outlet to speak with Wilder in the aftermath of the decision.
“For too long, physicians have been shamefully silent on these matters.”
“I worry that you will erode the trust we have built in our communities,” Wilder wrote to her employers, in a resignation letter reviewed by Filter. “I worry that this will be seen by our patients and allies as a turning away from them in a time of need.”
Dr. Kelsey Roden, a DSDP member based in Victoria, resigned from her position as Island Health’s South Island Addiction Medicine lead on the same day in solidarity with her colleague.
“I just don’t feel comfortable acting in a leadership role within a department that is conducting themselves that way,” Roden told Filter. “The physicians that I have spoken with have been upset that someone who was a harm reduction lead within Island Health is experiencing punitive measures, just for her work that she was doing in advocating for hospital-based OPS … there just seems to be a discrepancy.”
Roden will return to working at community clinics where she practiced before her leadership role with Island Health. Both she and Wilder said they intend to continue working in the medical field providing care for people who use drugs, as well as continue their advocacy with DSDP.
“For too long, physicians have been shamefully silent on these matters,” Wilder wrote in her resignation letter. “We owe it to our patients to speak up—loudly, when necessary—for the tools and policies needed to help keep them safe.”
“The citizens of British Columbia deserve more of what Dr. Wilder and others are doing to save lives, not less.”
In November, when DSDP launched its first two OPS in Victoria and Nanaimo, Island Health Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Réka Gustafson stated that unsanctioned sites will not be permitted on hospital grounds.
“This position is not meant to dissuade advocacy but rather to ensure that all services provided on Island Health property adhere to regulatory, safety, and clinical standards,” Gustafson said at that time.
At least a dozen organizations and individuals including Moms Stop the Harm, Vancouver Island University’s Harm Reduction Alliance, Surrey Union of Drug Users, Police Oversight With Evidence and Research and the Harm Reduction Nurses Association have sent letters of complaint to Island Health, expressing their solidarity with Wilder and denouncing her forced resignation.
“History will view the acts of Dr. Wilder as heroic, while your actions only serve to perpetuate more harm and death,” Moms Stop the Harm Executive Director J. Steward wrote to Island Health. “The citizens of British Columbia deserve more of what Dr. Wilder and others are doing to save lives, not less.”
Image of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital via Rural Coordination Centre of BC
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