FOI 26-237 Opioid Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-237 Opioid Incidents
- Request Date
- 20 May 2026
- Response Date
- 29 May 2026
- Information Requested
I am looking to gain information and data from the past 5 years on regarding ambulance service attendances for suspected opioid overdoses, including the number of cases naloxone was administered. where available please include a breakdown by route of administration (intranasal, intramuscular, intravenous), associated patient outcomes (need for further doses, transport to hospital or discharged on scene) and any recorded adverse events (needlestick injuries, failed cannulation attempts).
- Response
Clinicians responding to suspected drug‑related incidents treat patients based on their clinical presentation rather than any assumption about the substances taken. This approach is essential, as the substances involved are often unknown, may be misidentified, or may differ from what the individual believes they have taken. As a result, clinical decision‑making is guided by observed symptoms rather than reported drug use.
Within the Electronic Patient Record (EPR), information about substances may be recorded in a number of different ways, including overdose substance fields, substances‑affecting‑condition fields, or in free‑text entries. Due to this variation in how information is captured, it is not possible to produce reliable or comprehensive analysis of substance use across incidents.
For the purposes of this response, we have therefore limited the data provided to incidents where the final incident code was recorded as “23 – Overdose”. While substances may be a contributing factor in a wider range of incident types, the data held does not allow us to determine the extent or nature of drug‑related harm in those cases. Overdose incidents represent the only defined and consistently identifiable category within our systems for drug‑related harm, and this is the information we are able to provide.
Please note caution when interpreting this data
It should be noted that the figures provided relate to incidents rather than individual patients. In some cases, more than one patient may be present at an incident, and naloxone may be administered to more than one individual.
Additionally, incidents where naloxone is administered are not limited to those recorded as drug overdoses, as naloxone may be used in a range of clinical circumstances where opioid involvement is suspected.
Other organisations may use different methods to identify naloxone administration (for example, the use of specific codes such as ‘NLX’). The Scottish Ambulance Service does not use a single standardised code for this purpose, and therefore direct comparisons should be made with caution.
Where blank fields appear, there are no incidents to report.
For the given data, you will see that some of the figures are shown as, five or less than five, please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
Please see the attached sheet detailing the following:
- The total number of attended emergency incidents with the final code of Overdose, broken down by year
- The total number of attended emergency incidents with the final code of Overdose where Naloxone was administered, broken down by year
- The total number of attended emergency incidents with the final code of Overdose where Naloxone was administered, broken down by route and year
- The total number of attended emergency incidents with the final code of Overdose where Naloxone was administered more than once broken down by year.
- The total number of emergency incidents attended with the final code as Overdose broken down by year and whether they were conveyed to hospital or not.
It is important to note when interpreting this data – This report has been produced in two parts, this is due to the ongoing integration of a new system. This data cannot be merged into one table due to an overlap in a phased introduction of each system and the methodology for the data time frames is different.
The first tab of the sheet takes data collected from our legacy system (T2) and the second tab of the sheet details data collected from (T3)
The third tab on the spreadsheet details the needlestick incidents as reported by Scottish Ambulance Service staff. This information has been provided from 01/01/2021 - 25/05/2026.
We can only provide figures in relation to needlestick incidents. While information regarding attempted or unsuccessful cannulation may be recorded within individual Electronic Patient Records (EPR), there is no single, defined dataset or reporting field that would allow us to reliably identify and extract this information at scale. As such, it is not possible to produce accurate or comprehensive data on failed cannulation incidents. In line with our duty under section 17(1) of FOISA, we can confirm that this information is not held in a format that allows it to be reported.
- Response Documents
