National Poisons Information Centre Database (NPIC)

The main function of the National Poisons Information Centre is to provide information to healthcare professionals, to assist them in the management of acute poisonings. The Centre also gives advice to members of the public on accidental poisoning in children. The National Poisons Information Centre 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 National Poisons Information Centre from 2004 to date. Enquiry data from 1998 to 2003 inclusive have been exported from older databases into Excel files. For earlier years only annual reports (paper based) are available.

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

Case records in the NPIC database are from self-reported calls. The NPIC is not contacted about every case of poisoning treated in hospital or by GPs. The records reflect only the information collected when the public or healthcare profe

Coverage: National data on enquiries received by the National Poisons Information Centre. Aggregate data (annual reports) available for 1966 to 1993. Full dataset for 1993 to 2021 inclusive.