Burlco hospitals to provide heroin overdose antidote to law enforcement
Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi and Palmyra Police Chief Scott Pearlman recently announced that Burlington County’s three major hospitals have agreed to provide county law enforcement agencies with the opiate overdose antidote known as Narcan free of charge.
The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office has entered into formal agreements with Deborah Heart and Lung Center, Lourdes Health System and Virtua to establish the Burlington County Narcan Assistance Program.
“I thank these institutions for their willingness to create a partnership to help us deal with this extremely deadly, prolific problem,” Bernardi said. “The generosity of the hospitals will save lives.”
Narcan, which is the trademarked name for the drug naloxone, blocks the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose. Law enforcement agencies in Burlington County have deployed Narcan 94 times since July 2014. It has been deployed 64 times during 2015.
The agreements call for the hospitals to resupply the Narcan antidote to county law enforcement agencies on a quarterly basis as needed. The initial doses were funded by the Prosecutor’s Office.
“This program will enable the antidote to be readily available to law enforcement officers trained in the use of Narcan,” said Pearlman, president of the Burlington County Chiefs of Police Association. “That is a crucial component to insuring that our first responders are effectively prepared to combat opiate overdoses.”
All three hospitals expressed a strong willingness to participate in the program.
“For nearly 40 years Virtua’s paramedics have worked hand-in-hand with the law enforcement officers in each of the two counties that we serve,” said Richard P. Miller, Virtua President and CEO. “We view this program as a way to further strengthen that relationship in a way that truly benefits our partners in emergency response as well as the people in our communities.”
