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A man injects the painkiller hydromorphone at the Providence Health Care Crosstown Clinic in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver on Wednesday April 6, 2016.
A Vancouver nurse caught grossly mishandling a powerful painkiller may never practise again.
The College of Registered Nurses of B.C. posted a notice this week explaining that Leila Reshid, a registered nurse who previously worked for Vancouver Coastal Health, had been barred from practice after an investigation revealed she was dispensing staggering quantities of hydromorphone and carelessly handling the analgesic painkiller.
Hydromorphone — which also goes by the trade name Dilaudid — is a potent opioid used for relief of moderate to severe pain. Like morphine and heroin, it can become addictive and an overdose can lead to death.
Cynthia Johansen, registrar and CEO of CRNBC, said Reshid was working at Vancouver General Hospital in January 2015 when the college received a complaint alleging multiple concerns about her professional conduct.
“We really do take it very seriously,” Johansen said.
An investigation revealed that between August and October of 2014, a medication-dispensing unit logged 1,546 hydromorphone transactions by Reshid. The next highest number of transactions by an employee during that three-month period was 56.
Next, an audit of her practice revealed that between November 2013 and December 2014, Reshid had been dispensing hydromorphone for people who weren’t her patients, withdrawing medication for multiple patients at the same time, removing two doses at once and not accurately documenting or accounting for the drugs, or storing them safely.
On Nov. 28, an inquiry committee approved the cancellation of Reshid’s registration, barring her from working as a registered nurse. She cannot apply for reinstatement for five years but Johansen is confident she’ll never practise again.
“She’s going to have to prove to the registration committee or the college that she would be competent, safe and of good character,” Johansen said. “Given this, I think it’s a pretty high burden to prove that, especially on the good character piece.”
Johansen said it was important to ensure the public and potential employers know that she is no longer licensed.
She said Reshid did not offer a “reasonable explanation” for the amount of hydromorphone she removed or how it was handled, and her refusal to voluntarily remove herself from her practice led to delays in the investigation.
But Johansen said she is pleased with the outcome.
“It’s unfortunate when these things happen, however, it’s our job to identify these individuals and then when they’re unsafe and we know it, to take action, to make sure that they don’t practise,” she said.
“We don’t want her serving the public.”
VCH spokesman Gavin Wilson said that because Reshid’s case is a personnel matter, he couldn’t divulge private information. Wilson said a VCH manager reported the matter to the college and he confirmed that her employment was terminated in January 2015, in connection with the college’s recent notice.
“It’s a very serious matter and once we became aware of the situation, we acted quickly to end her employment with us,” Wilson said.
Barb McLintock, spokeswoman for the B.C. Coroners Service, said hydromorphone is rarely the cause of death in accidental illicit-drug deaths in the province.
Hydromorphone pills diverted to the illicit-drug market typically fetch $5-$30 on the street, according to drug price-tracking site streetRX.com.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that from 2010 to 2013, dispensing of oxycodone in Canada dropped by 44 per cent, but dispensing of hydromorphone increased by 56 per cent and fentanyl by nearly 16 per cent.