Evaluating the communication within fire and rescue services and the NHS on the fire risk of emollients in accordance of the MHRA safety update.

GREAT Britain. National Health Service; GREAT Britain. Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

SUMMARY: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency update in 2018 reported 50 fatal fires linked with emollient use. It detailed the fire risk and new advice aimed at fire service and health care professionals in reporting of such fire incidents and educating the public on safer use of emollients. This study investigates how this has been communicated internally and publicly, with 52 Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) websites and, 191 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and 21 Local Health Boards (LHBs) formularies accessed. A Freedom of Information Request (FOIR) was also made, giving further details of implementations. Our study revealed that 63% of FRSs, 32% of CCGs and, 72% of LHBs gave no safety advice within their website or formularies. Of the 37% of FRSs and 68% of CCGs that did, only 5% and 4% were sufficiently up to date. 27% of FRSs and 28% of CCGs/LHBs revealed that they had no warning/advice internally in their FOIR responses and 25% of FRSs and, 35% of CCG/LHBs had not disseminated advice on using emollient safely to the public. We suggest improvements in safety campaigns using a multiagency and national approach and recommend organizations to educate professionals to improve reporting and effective dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fire & Materials is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)