National Poisons Information Centre Database (NPIC)

Data Collection Type
National data collections of health and social care in Ireland
Organisation

Beaumont Hospital.

Year established

Pre-1993 — paper based.
1993 — database.

Statement of purpose

To provide information to healthcare professionals, to assist them in the management of acute poisonings, give advice to members of the public on accidental poisoning in children and to collect and analyse epidemiological data on acute poisonings in Ireland.

Coverage

National data on enquiries received by the National Poisons Information Centre (NPIC).

Description

The main function of the NPIC is to provide information to healthcare professionals, to assist them in the management of acute poisonings. NPIC also gives advice to members of the public on accidental poisoning in children. NPIC database collects and analyses epidemiological data on acute poisonings in Ireland. The Centre provides a 24-hour service, 365 days a year. Enquiries are answered by Poisons Information Officers between 8am and 10pm, while night-time calls are automatically diverted to the UK National Poisons Information Service (NPIS). Enquiries are logged on a computer database called UK Poisons Information Database (UKPID) which is used to generate reports. This is a database of enquiries to the NPIC from 2004 to date. Enquires from 1998 to 2003 inclusive are held on separate, older databases. For earlier years, only annual reports (paper based) are available.

Data content

Responder; enquirer; nature of enquiry; patient information; agent information; severity; response; outcome (in selected cases).

Data providers

Responder; enquirer; nature of enquiry; patient information; agent information; severity; response; outcome (in selected cases).

Data collection methodology

The data are collected on paper at the time of the enquiry and later inputted into the database (UKPID). Selected enquiries are followed up by telephone to determine the outcome of the case.

Data dictionary

Not available

Clinical coding scheme

WHO Adverse Reaction Terminology (ART) codes for features of poisoning. Poisoning Severity Score (PSS) for grading severity of poisoning.

Size of national collection

10,000 records created on average annually.

Publication frequency

Annual reports published.

Accessing data

Recent annual reports are available on the website. 
We can provide detailed anonymised data to regulatory authorities and researchers on request. This may be subject to ethics committee approval. Email npicdublin@beaumont.ie to request access.

Open data portal access

No

Email contact
Telephone contact