Addictions medicine doctor Jessica Wilder has resigned from her position as harm reduction and education physician lead and the lead physician of Addiction Medicine Consult Services at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
Wilder made waves within Island Health in the fall when she helped spearhead a movement of doctors who set up overdose prevention sites outside hospitals in Nanaimo and Victoria that was later replicated in Courtenay.
In her resignation letter sent on Wednesday, Feb. 5, which was obtained by The Discourse, Wilder writes that her “decision has not come lightly.”
Wilder writes that she has a “growing lack of faith in the [Addictions Medicine and Substance Use] AMSU leadership team” and that “[Their] attempts to dissuade and suppress the public advocacy work of physicians demanding evidence-based, life-saving interventions will have harmful consequences for those patients most at risk.”
“In the current political climate, the patients who trust us with their care deserve bold leadership and decisive action — particularly amid our decade-long public health emergency,” Wilder writes.
Wilder’s resignation letter reveals that she was put on administrative leave from her leadership positions as “a punitive response to [her] advocacy” and that she is “deeply concerned about the message this sends.”
An email from Wilder to her team obtained by The Discourse states that she was placed on a temporary administrative leave from the two leadership roles as of Jan. 22, 2025 pending an investigation into accusations regarding her advocacy work.
In a statement to The Discourse, Wilder said Island Health leadership would not provide concrete examples of their concerns regarding her advocacy work when asked.
“Two weeks later, and there has been ongoing radio silence from [Addictions Medicine and Substance Use] AMSU leadership with regards to these concerns,” Wilder said.
Wilder said she fears the lack of transparency and accountability “will further erode trust” inside and outside of Island Health’s Addictions Medicine and Substance Use organization.
In the email, Wilder notes that her clinical and patient-facing work will not be affected by this resignation. She will still provide medical care as usual.
She writes that she is worried the actions of Island Health leadership will discourage other doctors and healthcare workers from “doing what is right over what is easy.”
“I worry that this will be seen by our patients and allies as turning away from them in a time of need. For too long, physicians have been shamefully silent on these matters. In my view, we owe it to our patients to speak up — loudly, when necessary — for the tools and policies needed to help keep them safe.”
South Island doctor resigns in solidarity
Dr. Kelsey Roden also resigned from her position as the South Island addictions medicine lead in solidarity with Wilder.
“I feel that the decision to force her on administrative leave reflects poorly on AMSU leadership and I cannot align myself with those actions,” she wrote in a statement to The Discourse.
“Physicians have stood silent for too long in advocating for people who use drugs. Voices like Wilder’s are essential to creating change and need to be upheld in positions of leadership.”
Roden said she hopes her and Wilder’s resignations will be a catalyst for conversations inside Island Health about how to create a better environment for people who use drugs.
Island Health says administrative leave was not punitive
In an email to The Discourse, Island Health disputed that placing Wilder on administrative leave was a punitive action.
“Administrative leaves are used to ensure that individuals who are party to an investigation continue to be compensated while a fair investigation is underway,” it said.
Island Health said it has policy that “supports the ability of medical staff and staff to advocate publicly while ensuring that personal positions are not confused with the position of Island Health and that private information remains confidential.”
It stressed that the addictions medicine and substance use program remains focused on providing care for patients and “supports harm reduction as a foundational component of our substance use system of care.”
Island Health says major hospitals on Vancouver Island continue to have addictions medicine consult service teams in them that work with patients on care plans while aligning with provincial policies and regulations.
Advocates and healthcare workers flood Island Health with letters in support of Wilder
Letters from dozens of advocacy organizations and health-care workers are being sent to Island Health leadership condemning the actions that lead to Wilder and Roden’s resignations.
A letter from J. Stewart, executive director of advocacy group Moms Stop the Harm, that is addressed to Island Health says the actions of Nanaimo hospital leadership “amid a public health emergency were unconscionable.” She says Wilder’s actions are heroic, and that Island Health’s actions are “perpetuating more harm and death.”
“At a time when you could choose to be leading, you eliminated one of the few health professionals who was actually responding to this crisis and prioritizing patient care,” Stewart writes.
Nanaimo resident Gretchen Brown, who lost her son Hayden from unregulated drugs in 2021, said she commends Doctors for Safer Drug Policy for setting up the overdose prevention site and that it gave her hope.
“This is a public health emergency killing 22 Canadians a day,” she writes. “We should be supporting an evidence based approach and listening to our health care professionals, not silencing them.”
Heather Tunold-Roberts wrote a letter to Island Health leadership as someone who was a drug user for 20 years who now works as a harm reduction educator.
“Jessica Wilder and her colleagues’ work profoundly demonstrates true allyship. They are using their skills, status and privilege to reduce harm among those at imminent risk of harm and death.”
Tunold-Roberts writes that as someone who is at risk from the toxic drug supply she is “deeply troubled” by the way the issue has been politicized.
“I often feel deep despair and frustration, wishing that those with more power than I have would fight as relentlessly as I do,” she writes. “It is profoundly disappointing to see that one of the few individuals who has passionately worked to reduce harm in the ways drug user groups, advocates and communities have demanded is now facing reprimand.”
Sarah Lovegrove, a nursing professor at Vancouver Island University and vice president of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, said in a letter that in the summer of 2023 one of her students reported to Wilder that their assigned patient used substances and was interested in recovery.
“Dr. Wilder immediately made herself available to discuss options. By the end of our shift, this Indigenous patient was connected to a culturally-appropriate recovery option within his own community on the North Island that he could engage with upon discharge from hospital,” Lovegrove writes in a letter to Island Health leadership.
“It is disturbing to me that a doctor with so much capacity to inspire the next generation of providers would be silenced and penalized for doing the job she was hired to do.”
A letter from the VIU Harm Reduction Alliance, who describe themselves as a “multidisciplinary group of students,” says they worked with Wilder during the Doctors for Safer Drug Policy’s pop-up overdose prevention site in Nanaimo.
“Her work stood out as an example of the principles that we are taught to uphold in practice in our community and was an inspiration for what we can strive to accomplish in our own work.”
The students wrote that the actions of Island Health “sends a loud, hopeless message. We feel this hopelessness both as students aspiring to improve these systems of care and as citizens who rely on them.”
The Harm Reduction Nurses Association wrote in a letter that the actions of Island Health leadership to “silence Dr. Wilder’s patient advocacy is abhorrent” and goes against the organization’s stated goals to provide quality health care for people who use substances safely.
