A doctor in Vancouver Island who is involved in establishing unmatched overdose prevention websites has resigned from her positions with Island Health and claims that she was put on leave as a punishment for her public advocate.

Dr. Jess Wilder, a founder of the group doctors for safer drug policy, says in a letter of departure dated February 5 that she leaves her positions with Island Health “immediately.”

Wilder says she was placed on administrative leave on January 22 from her doctor’s leading positions in injuries to injuries and education and addiction medicine at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

She says in a separate letter addressed to colleagues at Iceland Health that she was placed on leave “pending investigation of alleged allegations” related to her “public advocate work”, even if it says she will continue her clinical and patient -facing work.

Wilder says the investigation is confidential and she directed questions to Dr. Ash Heaslip, with Island Health’s Addiction Medicine and Substance Use Program, and Dr. Randal Mason, the program’s regional medical director.

Doctors for safer drug policy established unauthorized overdose prevention places at Nanaimo Hospital and at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria in November 2024, in an attempt to press the provincial government to act on what the group says is an “unfulfilled promise to deal with drug use in hospital.”