In FY 2012, Southcoast hospitals treated a total of 219 heroin overdoses. With four months remaining in this fiscal year, Southcoast had already seen 116 overdoses.

NEW BEDFORD — In a 24-hour period Thursday to Friday, first responders answered calls for 15 drug overdoses, the city's fire chief said.



"It was a very bad 24-hour period," Fire Chief Michael Gomes said Friday. "For us to have 15 in a 24-hour period is far above our normal call volume."



Those numbers are yet another sign that overdoses are on the rise in the region. In FY 2012, Southcoast hospitals treated a total of 219 heroin overdoses, officials said. With four months remaining in this fiscal year, Southcoast had already seen 116 overdoses as of Feb. 21.



Gomes said he believes the Thursday-Friday overdoses were all heroin-related, but he said first responders cannot determine that in the field.



What is clear, he said, is that "It's a constant uptick recently."



That uptick is also reflected in increasing numbers of patients being treated at local hospitals for overdoses caused by heroin and pain killers bought illegally, according to Southcoast Health System officials.



"We have definitely seen an increase in numbers compared to previous years," said Dr. Randy Kaplan, assistant emergency room director at Charlton Memorial Hospital, Fall River, who also works in the emergency room at Tobey Hospital in Wareham.



He called heroin overdoses "the most critical" and added that those ERs along with St. Luke's have been treating overdoses for pain killers "all the time."



"There has been an uptick just looking at the opiate overdoses," he said.



The emergency rooms have seen overdoses where the user has taken a mix of Fentanyl and heroin, he said. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic similar to but more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.



Fentanyl is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, or to manage pain after surgery, the NIDA said on its website.



Rachel Davis, a spokeswoman at Southcoast Hospitals, said there has been a steady increase in heroin overdoses the last three years at the three hospitals: 219 in FY 12, 314 in FY 2013; and 116 heroin overdoses through Feb. 21 with four months left in FY 14, she said.



"We anticipate seeing an increase again this year," Davis said, who noted there is no breakdown by hospital.



Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said state police did not respond to any reports of fatal drug overdoses in New Bedford either Thursday or Friday.



Police Chief David Provencher said there was a fatal overdose in the city Wednesday night, but the cause of death is pending toxicology tests.



Late last month, state police reported 185 fatal heroin overdoses statewide between November 2013 and February 2014. That number does not include fatal heroin overdoses in the state's three largest cities — Boston, Springfield and Worcester — which investigate their own deaths.



Carl Alves, the director of Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction, Inc., on Friday cited national statistics from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that for every fatal heroin overdose, there are 47 non-fatal overdoses.



Dr. Shabana Naz, medical director at Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, said they have been seeing an increase of primary care patients "who are using heroin and pain killers they buy off the streets" She said she is also aware of the high numbers of patients treated at local hospitals for overdoses.



First responders in New Bedford do not administer Narcan, which counters an opioid overdose, but have completed their training and expect to begin administering it sometime in the next 60 days, Chief Gomes said.



Officials at Massasoit Community College announced Friday that campus police officers were being trained to administer Narcan.



Sally Cameron, a spokeswoman for Bristol Community College, said the school is looking into training its campus police in the use of Narcan.



John Hoey, a spokesman at UMass Dartmouth, said campus police do not currently administer Narcan, but they are reviewing it.