Phone service to help deal with poisons

A TELEPHONE service has been launched by the National Poisons Information Centre to help people, particularly parents, deal with accidents involving poisons.

The NPIC, based in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, provides a round-the-clock specialist information service to doctors and healthcare professionals.

In recent years, there has been a growing demand from members of the public for advice, with such calls accounting for about a quarter of the 10,000 the NPIC receives each year.

The new public service will operate between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Those who call the helpline number 01-8092166 outside of these hours will still be advised to contact their local GP or hospital.

NPIC director Dr Edel Duggan said almost every EU country and the United States had a public information helpline that have been shown to improve medical outcomes and reduce the number of unnecessary visits to hospital emergency departments, especially by children.

She pointed out that, in cases involving low toxicity substances, it was often possible to reassure callers and give practical advice on managing the patient.

Dr Duggan said the centre’s trained specialist could quickly identify incidents in which urgent medical attention was needed and advise on the immediate steps to be taken by the caller.

“Two things are vitally important: doing the right thing to stop the situation getting worse and speed of response,” said Dr Duggan. “Members of the public should always remember that when it comes to poison minutes matter.”

The new public call service is being provided from within the NPIC’s existing resources and is initially being run as a pilot to gauge potential demand for a full 24-hour service and what additional resources might be needed.

Using US data as a rough guide, the centre, established 44 years ago, expects that a 24-hour public service could treble the volume of calls it receives each year.