Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) last week (March 14) published a warning about “a sudden increase in overdoses” and advised pharmacy teams to ensure staff are “familiar with the signs of overdose” and its current “increased incidence”.
“Recent reports have highlighted an increase in sudden collapse after injecting or smoking heroin,” it said.
“This appears linked to a rapid onset into overdose and multiple doses of naloxone being required to reverse overdose,” it added.
Read more: ‘Lives saved’ as over 300 pharmacy staff take-home naloxone trained
According to CPS, concerns have been raised about “clusters of drug-related harm including both near-fatal overdoses and deaths”.
It advised pharmacy teams to:
- Make staff aware of the alert
- Ensure staff are “familiar with the signs of overdose” and the current “increased incidence”
- Be able to signpost to services at local treatment centres
- Ensure staff are aware of the community pharmacy emergency supply of naloxone service and have undertaken the “appropriate training”
- Ensure the pharmacy has “appropriate stock to provide the service”
- Ensure “stock is in-date, re-order if not and claim as per the service specification”
“Raise awareness”
The CPS warning comes after the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) this month launched “refreshed information to raise awareness of the signs of overdose”.
The SDF leaflet sets out how to recognise the signs of an overdose, what to do in these situations and how to “reduce your risk” as a drug user.
Read more: Pharmacies set to supply take-home naloxone without a prescription
Meanwhile, NHS Fife last month revealed that “a new partnership” between the commissioner, charity With You and local pharmacies saw the number of naloxone kits distributed by community pharmacies across Fife increase by at least 326% year-on-year.
It comes after the UK government greenlit new take-home naloxone rules in May allowing “registered pharmacy professionals” to supply the drug to individuals for future use.
Since then, “over 60 pharmacies have signed up to the take-home naloxone service, with over 300 pharmacy staff from across Fife having already received training,” NHS Fife said at the time.
Read more: Naloxone service launches at all Scottish community pharmacies
In October, Devon County Council announced a new pharmacy pilot service in a bid to reduce drug-related deaths and train staff to recognise and respond to the “symptoms of opioid overdose”.
But C+D learned in January that the scheme had been delayed and was yet to start due to “training requirements”.
It remains unclear whether the pilot has since begun.
