FOI 25-472 Naloxone Usage
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-472 Naloxone Usage
- Request Date
- 20 Oct 2025
- Response Date
- 17 Nov 2025
- Information Requested
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information:
1) The number of instances in which naloxone has been administered by Scottish Ambulance Service staff, for each year available up to and including 2025.
2) Of these instances, the number in which naloxone had to be administered more than once to the same patient in a single episode.
3) The number of instances in which naloxone was administered but the recipient subsequently died, if such information is collected. If this information is not recorded, please confirm.
4) A geographic breakdown of the above data at the lowest level of geographic detail held by Scottish Ambulance Service that can be released without breaching confidentiality
- Response
Please see the attached sheet detailing annual counts of all attended incidents where naloxone was administered by SAS crews, broken down by health board. The figures provided are inclusive of all types of incidents. The patient may have been in Cardiac Arrest as the initial reason for the call and the crew have used Naloxone during their intervention as a potential reversible cause during the Cardiac Arrest, without the initial presentation being suggestive of an overdose. Therefore, caution should be applied with the numbers where naloxone was administered and the patient subsequently died.
This information has been provided from two systems within SAS as a new clinical system is being phased in. This phased system has been in place since June 24 and involves only a portion of Scotland. There is the possibility that an incident from the Terrapace 3 system (green tabs) could be counted in the Terrapace 2 system (blue tabs) and therefore the figures in the table should NOT be added together.
Each system the requested information broken down over 3 tabs. The first details the total annual number of when Naloxone has been administered by crews broken down by health board. The second tab details the total annual count of patients that have received more than one dosage of naloxone during the same incident, broken down by health board. The third tab details the total annual count for when crews have indicated the use of naloxone on a patient and also noted either ROLE (Recognition of Life Extinct) or PLE (Pronounced Life Extinct).
Point to note – This is a count of cases where the crew used the Naloxone (Narcan) drug button on the patient report forms. This count will not include cases where Naloxone was administered by bystanders or from the patient’s own supply.
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.
- Response Documents
