The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Union fear over lifesaver kit
Asenior NHS Grampian pharmacist admits volunteers giving life-saving medicine may face “anger” from the addicts they revive.
Union officials raised concerns over Aberdeen City Council plans to look for staff – including librarians, refuse collectors and city wardens – to train to give naloxone to people who have taken opiate/ opioid overdoses.
Reps claim those already administering the lifesaver, which temporarily reverses an overdose, have been met with some “very angry” patients when they come to.
NHS Grampian’s Fiona Raeburn, a substance misuse pharmacist brought in to reassure councillors on the proposed training expansion, admitted it was “certainly something we have experience of ”.
The secretary of Unite’s city council branch Mishelle Gray said: “There are a lot of concerns and questions.
“There have also been situations, from staff who have been doing this previously, where they have been faced with someone who has come around and has been very angry.
“That puts staff at risk as well – we can see the benefits of this but there is a lot of work to be done.
“I would like to see something in writing that this is absolutely voluntary.”
The move was agreed only weeks after a warning about a significant rise in suspected drug deaths in Aberdeen this year.
More than 10 deaths – a quarter of the total for 2019 – were thought to be drugrelated in March alone.
The rise was put down to people mixing drugs, with particular concern around benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium). Naloxone will not reverse an overdose of these drugs.
Authorities think around 2,600 in Aberdeen use opioids such as heroin and morphine illicitly.
The council plans to find more volunteers in its community workforce in hot-spots in Torry and Seaton to be trained to give naloxone, by injection or nasal spray, before expanding to George Street, Stockethill and Mastrick.
Officials hope the number of naloxone kits given to family and friends of drug users could double – with lives saved as a result – by September.
Ms Raeburn said: “When naloxone brings someone round, there is maybe a crowd around the person, they maybe feel disorientated and unsure of what’s happening.
“That can lead to a bit of confusion and agitation.”