The National Poisons Information Centre (NPIC) provides telephone information and advice 24 hours a day to assist in the treatment of poisoning. We answer 150-200 enquiries every week and approximately 50% of our calls are from healthcare professionals in hospitals, GP practices, and community pharmacies.
All enquiries between 8am and 10pm are answered by our own staff in Dublin. Outside of these hours calls are automatically transferred to our colleagues in the UK National Poisons Information Service who work closely with us to ensure continuity of patient care.
We routinely follow up serious or unusual cases to determine the outcome and to further our knowledge of poisoning cases. “Follow-up” is usually performed by telephone and can involve multiple calls to nursing and/or medical staff. We are extremely grateful to everyone who takes the time to talk to us when we call to follow up a case and we welcome any feedback about our service.