The purpose of this research is to establish the introduction of a robust toxicology surveillance system in the Emergency Department (ED) in order to inform public health interests. The study will explore the feasibility of reporting characteristics and causative agents of patients attending hospital as an emergency due illicit substance use. The term illicit substance used during this study encompasses any substance which is not prescribed to the individual and is a controlled drug as per the Misuse of Drugs act 1971 and Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.~The study will look at standard care clinical data from all individuals attending the Emergency Department due to acute illicit drug toxicity. Surplus blood samples will be anonymised and analysed for toxicological profiling.~The study will allow identification of emerging drug trends and will be shared contemporaneously with Public Health Scotland and inform the Scottish Government of current incidences to inform public health measures to tackle the drugs death crisis.
There is a drug-related death crisis in Scotland. This study aims to collaborate with Public Health Scotland in order to assess the feasibility of introducing a surveillance system to the Emergency Department to highlight illicit drug-related attendances. This will utilise both clinical data and toxiclogical analysis of anonymised samples. The data will inform of prevalence, trend data and utcome of ED patients attending with acute illict drug toxicity.