Current guidelines from the NPIS state that all acute hospitals should provide assays on 24/7 for: COHb, Digoxin, Ethanol, Iron, Lithium, Met Hb, Paracetamol, Salicylate and Theophylline. The Toxicology Department in Beumpont will not provide these assays from April 2009.
Screening for Drugs of Abuse will not be available out of hours. There are few occasions when when a drugs of abuse screen results will aid in the acute management of the poisoned patient. If the in-patient / admitting team wish for these analyses for ongoing patient management, urine samples should be sent, via the local laboratotry susytem, the following day.