Public to be allowed administer more emergency medicines

Trained members of the public are to be allowed administer life-saving rescue medicines in emergency situations, under new laws signed by Minister for Health Leo Varadkar.

The change will allow for the wider use of adrenaline epipens to treat people suffering severe allergic reactions, glucagon for low blood-sugar levels experienced by diabetics, and naloxone to treat cases of drug overdose.

Other emergency medicines covered by the new regulations are salbutamol for the treatment of asthma attacks, glyceryl trinitrate for unstable angina, and entonox, a gas mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen used by mountain rescue teams to manage severe pain.

Mr Varadkar has also expanded the vaccines that can be administered by pharmacists. Both measures have been brought in through statutory instrument.

Fatal reaction

The family of

Emma Sloan

, who died on Dublin’s O’Connell Street in December 2013 after suffering an allergic reaction, has been campaigning for epipens to be made more widely available.

The 14-year-old girl died after mistaking satay sauce for curry sauce in a Chinese restaurant, causing her body to react to the peanuts. Her mother, Caroline, ran to the nearest pharmacy to get the epipen injection that would have saved her life but was refused because she didn’t have a prescription with her. The pharmacist later said he didn’t realise the epipen was for Mrs Sloan’s daughter.

Mr Varadkar said the new regulations have the potential to save lives. Between 2007 and 2013, 16,722 people died in Ireland after heart attack from multiple causes, 359 died following an acute asthma attack, 17 from hypoglycaemia, and four from severe allergic shock.

“I am allowing organisations such as colleges, workplaces and sports venues to hold emergency ‘rescue’ medicines and arrange for staff to be trained in their use. Pharmacists will also be able to supply and administer these medicines to individuals in emergency circumstances.”

The new arrangements don’t affect the existing “good Samaritan” rule that allows any member of the public to help a person in distress to take a medicine prescribed to them.

Pharmacists have been allowed offer the flu vaccine to patients since 2011. Under the new regulations, they will be able to offer shingles and pneumococcal vaccines too. These vaccines will be available in pharmacies from early next year.