Emergency Medicines
Legislation (SI 449 of 2015) has been introduced to allow for trained non-medical persons to administer specific prescription-only medicines to a person, without a prescription, for the purpose of saving their life or reducing severe distress in an emergency situation.
Read more about the emergency medicines legislation and the roles of the HPRA, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI).
How to notify the HPRA of intention to procure or purchase a specified medicine for supply and administration in an emergency situation
The HPRA’s Emergency Medicines Portal is an online system that will allow organisations to notify the HPRA of their intention to procure or purchase a specified medicine from a pharmacy or other supplier for supply and administration in an emergency situation.
- The portal is an easy to follow, secure, electronic mechanism that enables an organisation to submit a valid ‘notification’ (as defined in emergency medicines legislation).
- This notification must be completed prior to the first procurement of a specified medicine(s).
- In order to complete the notification process, an organisation must have appointed at least one accountable person who is legally responsible to ensure compliance with the legislation.
- The organisation should also ensure there are individuals trained in the use of all medicines they wish to procure, before they notify the HPRA of their intention to procure any medicines.
- The portal allows organisations to include details for each individual premises, should the organisation wish to procure medicines for more than one premises.
- It also allows for changes to be made to ensure details are up to date. These should be completed within four weeks of any changes taking place.
- Once a valid notification has been submitted through the portal, the relevant details will be published on the list of 'Listed Organisations' - see below.
The HPRA will publish a list on of registered organisations here, which is available for review by pharmacists, members of the public and other interested stakeholders, that will include the following information:
- The name of the organisation, defined as the ‘listed organisation’.
- The address of the organisation that will procure the medicine(s).
- If different to above, the business name or trading style of the organisation.
- The medicine(s) the organisation intends to procure.
- The address of the premises where the medicine(s) will be stored.
- The name of the accountable person(s).
Details on how the HPRA processes personal data in relation to the emergency medicines register can be found here.