Some 4,000 children are accidentally poisoned each year in the Republic, many of them with medicines which have been left lying around their homes, a conference heard yesterday.
The annual meeting of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) was told the figure highlights the threat caused by unused medicines as delegates considered a motion calling for the roll-out of a national campaign to encourage people to dispose of such medicines at their local pharmacy.
Darragh O'Loughlin, a Galway pharmacist and chairman of the IPU's community pharmacy committee, urged people to dispose of any unwanted medicines immediately.
"In particular, paracetamol, ibuprofen or aspirin are common causes of accidental poisoning in children," he said.
"Even though these medicines can be obtained without a doctor's prescription they are still very dangerous if taken incorrectly."
He added that the figures for accidental poisonings each year came from the National Poisons Information Centre at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital. Some 70 per cent of the calls received by the centre each year related to medicines, he said.
The former South Western Area Health Board has been running an organised campaign since January 2004 which allows people to return out of date or unused medicines to their local pharmacy, he said. He also called for the scheme, which is now being set up in a number of other areas, to be extended nationwide.
At the conference the pharmacists also pointed out that they could play a major role in community health screening by assessing patients for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They want their roles extended and say this could help reduce the demand for services in other areas, including hospital A&E departments.
"The treatment of type 2 diabetes alone costs the health service €580 million each year. These costs could be significantly reduced through investment by Government in the prevention of diabetes and diabetes-related complications," he said.
The IPU again expressed anger at the HSE's refusal to negotiate a new fee structure with community pharmacists for dispensing medicines to medical card holders. The HSE says that for it to negotiate fees with the union on behalf of its members would be in breach of competition law.