Emergency department visits

Figure: Emergency department visits for confirmed opioid drug poisonings, by month, Sudbury and Manitoulin districts, 2018–2026

Line graph of monthly emergency department visits for opioid drug poisonings from January 2018 to May 2026. Counts vary widely from month to month (see table, below). The rolling 3-month average count increases from about 10 visits per month in mid-2018 to a peak of roughly 65 visits per month in January 2021. Visits then decline steadily, reaching about 30 visits per month by spring 2023. The trend rises gradually to around 45 visits per month in mid-2024 before decreasing towards the end of that year. Visits increase significantly starting in late 2025, with the average monthly count reaching almost 60 in May 2026.

Table: Emergency department visits for confirmed opioid drug poisonings, by month, Sudbury and Manitoulin districts, 2018–2026

Note:

  • Counts, especially those from recent months, are preliminary and subject to change.
  • These data include all unscheduled visits to emergency department in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts for which an opioid drug poisoning was recorded as the main or other problem. Unconfirmed diagnoses are excluded.
  • Counts may include residents of other geographic areas who visited a local emergency department.

Source:Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NARCS). Obtained from the Ontario Ministry of Health on June 30, 2026.

Figure: Annual rates of emergency department visits for confirmed opioid drug poisonings per 100,000 population, by geographic region, 2018–2026

Line graph showing annual rates of emergency department visits for opioid drug poisonings from 2018 to May 2026 in Sudbury and districts, Northern Ontario and Ontario. Rates in all areas increased from 2018 to 2021, with Sudbury and districts highest, Northern Ontario intermediate, and Ontario lowest throughout the period. After 2021, rates decline across all regions, with some fluctuation, and continue downward until 2025. Rates increase again in 2026. The rates in the North remain consistently higher than the provincial rate over the entire period.

Table: Annual rate of emergency department visits for opioid drug poisonings per 100,000 population, by geographic region, 2018–2026

Note:

  • Rates, especially those from recent months, are preliminary and subject to change.
  • These data include all unscheduled visits to emergency department in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts for which an opioid drug poisoning was recorded as the main or other problem. Unconfirmed diagnoses are excluded.
  • These rates are based on counts that may include residents of other geographic areas who visited a local emergency department. This will have introduced a small error into our calculated rates, the denominators for which are based on the estimated population of local residents.
  • The rates for the current year have been annualized to represent the annual rates that would be seen if the average monthly counts seen thus far in the year persist for the whole year.

Source: (1) Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NARCS) [unpublished datafile]. Received from the Ontario Ministry of Health on February 11, 2026. (2) Ontario Ministry of Health, Population Estimates and Projections 2018–2026, IntelliHEALTH Ontario, accessed March 20, 2025