Abstract
The New Zealand National Poisons Centre (NZNPC) provides a range of services contributing to the prevention and mitigation of harm to New Zealanders from poisoning. Each year the NZNPC’s Poisons Line handles around 23,000 calls from the public requiring advice on suspected poisonings. Of this around 70% of callers do not require medical treatment but are instead advised on how to manage the incident themselves. Poisoning exposures in children under the age of 5 years’ account for over half of the calls to the NZNPC.
Callers to the Poisons Line over a two-week period who were advised to self-manage were surveyed about their alternate actions in the absence of the Poisons Line. Costs associated with those alternate actions were then estimated and multiplied by the annual number of NZNPC patients advised to self-manage. The value of medical costs borne by healthcare purchasers avoided as a result of self-managed facilitated by the NZNPC was estimated to be in the range of NZ$64.70 to NZ$446.94 per patient advised to self-manage, resulting in an annual saving of at least NZ$1.1 million.
The number of calls to the NZNPC Poisons Line depends on both the need for advice (e.g. rates of poisoning incidents) and the decision to call the NPC (e.g. awareness of the NPC; attractiveness of other sources of advice).
A survey of demographic characteristics, approaches to poisoning management and awareness of the NZNPC was distributed to caregivers of children under the age of 5 years through Dunedin early learning centres. Respondents generally showed a good awareness of poisoning management, with 77% of respondents were aware of the NZNPC. Possible associations between awareness levels and ethnicity, income and education merit further investigation.
The findings, when considered with records of poisoning harm and NZNPC call rates by ethnicity, provide preliminary evidence that targeted efforts to increase awareness of the NZNPC's Poison Line could create further savings in medical utilisation as well as associated benefits of reduced poisoning harm and non-medical cost savings.