HSE launch project in Cork to provide take-home medicine packs that reverse opioid overdoses

The team will provide naloxone directly to people who have overdosed but decline ambulance transport to hospital

(Left to right) Mauro Lacovich of the HSE Cork Drugs and Alcohol Service; Dr Daragh Mathews, emergency medicine doctor and NCDH lead for the Alternative Prehospital Pathway (APP) project at Cork University Hospital; Jenny Smyth, HSE Naloxone Project lead and Stephen O’Flaherty, community engagement officer and advanced paramedic launch the programme to give naloxone directly to people in Cork who have overdosed but decline hospital transport. Picture: Brian Lougheed

The HSE has launched a potentially life-saving new programme in Cork to provide naloxone, a medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose, directly to people who have overdosed but decline ambulance transport to hospital.

Led by Dr Daragh Mathews, Emergency Medicine Doctor at Cork University Hospital, the National Ambulance Service’s Alternative Prehospital Pathway (APP) is launching a team that includes a doctor who can provide a naloxone take-home pack, ensuring this medication reaches those most at risk.