I propose to take Questions Nos. 350 and 351 together.
In October 2015, my predecessor, Minister Leo Varadkar T.D., signed regulations which allow certain prescription-only medicines to be administered by trained members of the public in emergency situations.
In order for an organisation to avail of an emergency medicine without the need for a prescription, they must first register with the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) and undergo a training course accredited by the Pre Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC).
This register is publicly available through the Emergency Medicines Portal on the HPRA website and can be found at: www.hpra.ie/homepage/medicines/emergency-medicines/emergency-medicines-search/results.
There are currently a total of 14 organisations listed on the register for Emergency Medicines. The number of accountable persons for emergency medicines is 21 overall. Each organisation may have more than one site and more than one accountable person registered.
Prescription only medications (POMs) are so designated because there are safety concerns about these medications. The administration of a POM should not be done lightly and should only occur following appropriate training. A decision to undergo training on the use and administration of an emergency medicine rests with individual organisations.
The cost of the Cardiac First Response (CFR) and Medications for Listed Organisations (MLO) training courses and the supplementary modules in administering emergency medicines are determined by the Recognised Institutions (RIs) approved to deliver the training programme. PHECC RIs include voluntary organisations, higher education institutions, commercial companies and statutory public bodies. Education course material, including assessment tools, has been developed by PHECC for use by the RIs in their delivery of the CFR and MLO courses.
The CFR and MLO courses involve 2 modules - medication management and medicinal product administration modules of 2-4 hours duration and incorporate the basic modules of Cardiac First Response. Thus the total duration of the course may be between six to eight hours. This time period facilitates the teaching, learning and skill assessment required for non-medical persons to safely care for persons in the community who may be experiencing life threatening conditions such as anaphylaxis, hypoglycaemia, severe angina, acute asthmatic attack and pain relief in emergency rescue situations. Acute illness can progress very quickly to cardiac arrest therefore all authorised persons must be able to identify and treat a cardiac arrest which is the minimum clinical training required prior to completion of the medication modules.
PHECC have advised that they do not believe, at this point in time, that their Education and Training Standards need to be updated in order to enable communities to have better access to these life saving medicines. Rather that continued improvement of the general public’s awareness of this health policy initiative is critical to its successful implementation.
