About a dozen Quebec nurses suspended for stealing fentanyl over last decade
MONTREAL — Fentanyl, the powerful opioid currently preoccupying public health authorities, isn’t just a problem on the streets. About a dozen Quebec nurses have been temporarily suspended over the last decade for stealing quantities of the drug from the workplace, says a Canadian Press analysis of the Quebec Order of Nurses’ disciplinary council decisions.
While 12 suspensions were handed out between 2006 and 2016, the actual number of thefts was much higher, since most cases were only detected after multiple incidents that went on for months or even years, the documents show.
In the most severe cases, patients were deprived of their medication by nurses who replaced the fentanyl in pills or drips with water or an intravenous saline solution.
“Unfortunately, drug appropriation and substitution by other substances are too frequent at this time,” the disciplinary council wrote in a 2012 decision.