Call for nationwide scheme to safely dispose of unused or out-of-date medication

It comes after similar calls from the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) which has said that pharmacists have reached the stage where it is not viable to accept unused medicines from the public without the State covering the cost of disposing of these medicines. File photo

A nationwide scheme to allow people return unused or out of date medication to pharmacies has been urgently called for, amid concerns over serious safety and environmental risks.

Ireland is out of line with many other countries as it does not have a funded national programme to safely dispose of unused medicines.

The Dispose of Unused Medicines Properly (DUMP) campaign was previously delivered on a ad-hoc basis in Cork and Kerry with joint funding provided by the HSE and local authorities. 

"This initiative, which usually ran for around five weeks at a time, allowed the public to bring unused or out of date medicines to participating pharmacies to ensure that they are disposed of properly.

However, the last time one of these campaigns ran was 2023, with no funding currently available to rollout a further scheme.

A HSE spokesperson said: "Unused or out-of-date medicines can build up in the home for a variety of reasons. 

"Storing these medications long-term is not safe and can contribute to accidental poisonings, intentional overdose, inappropriate sharing of medicines and environmental damage."

It comes after the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) warned that pharmacists have reached the stage where it is not viable to accept unused medicines from the public without the state covering the cost of disposing these medicines.

It is understood that some pharmacies have been forced to start charging customers who return drugs or medication.

With over 1,800 pharmacies nationwide, IPU president Tom Murray said this is the "logical" centre point for a national programme, but he stressed that proper funding would have to be provided as well as training for staff around the disposal of potentially dangerous items such as used injections.

"This is a patient safety and the public safety issue. 

"There is increasing evidence around the risk of accidental poisoning, where patients maybe through confusion or maybe through a label falling off or medicines could have been stored for too long, take the wrong medicine for what they think is the right thing," Mr Murray said.

Research conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes on behalf of the IPU in 2020 showed that a third of all unused medicines are incorrectly disposed of, with 6% dangerously flushed down sinks or toilets. 

The same research highlighted that over one third of medicines in Ireland are incorrectly discarded.

Labour Party health spokesperson Marie Sherlock has called for an urgent rollout of a scheme to both protect the environment and to ensure large volumes of potentially dangerous tablets and medication are not stockpiled in homes.

"We need to look at how do we protect our water quality, as opposed to flushing it down sink, which we know some people do," she said.

"I would be very supportive of calling for it to be expanded across the country," she said.

The HSE has said there has been interest outside the Cork and Kerry area in running DUMP campaigns and in making this a national scheme.

"There is support for this from the Irish Pharmacy Union, the National Office for Suicide Prevention and the HSE," it said.