Injection spiking

Q1. Please could you provide me with the number of A&E admissions relating to so-called “injection-spiking” in 2021, by month? Of these, how many patients had tests taken for toxicology and what were the outcomes? If possible, please can you break this down into types of test (e.g. blood/urine/hair), length of time since incident (“within 12hrs”, “within 24hrs” and “within 72hrs”), demographic of patient and type of drug found (if any).

Medway NHS Foundation Trust can only advise the number of A&E admissions for 2021 by searching a free text field, which includes query spiking, and this data is in the table below. We regret data relating to tests, toxicology, length of time since incident etc., are not collated by the Trust. The only other data we are able to provide is details of patient age ranges, and this is also below.

April
Number of patients: <5

May
Number of patients: <5

June
Number of patients: <5

July
Number of patients: <5

August
Number of patients: 8

September
Number of patients: 7

October
Number of patients: 14

November
Number of patients: 15

December
Number of patients: 8

Ages:

0 to 17
Number of patients: <5

18 to 27
Number of patients: 48

28 plus
Number of patients: 10

Q2. Please could you provide me with the number of A&E admissions relating to so-called “drink-spiking” between Jan 2015 – Dec 2021? Of these, how many patients had tests taken for toxicology and what were the outcomes? If possible, please can you break this down into types of test (e.g. blood/urine/hair), length of time since incident (“within 12hrs”, “within 24hrs” and “within 72hrs”), demographic of patient and type of drug found (if any).

Medway NHS Foundation Trust regret that we are unable to answer this question as this data is not collated.

Q3. Please could you provide me with the Trust’s current policy at A&E for testing for reported or suspected “injection-spiking” in patients? If possible, please include information on whether tests are done, even when not clinically necessary e.g. for benefit of capturing the information / early evidence for police in case of subsequent reporting.

The Trust can confirm there is no policy for testing for reported or suspected injection spiking.

Q4. Please could you provide me with the Trust’s current policy at A&E for testing for reported or suspected “drink-spiking” in patients? If possible, please include information on whether tests are done, even when not clinically necessary e.g. for benefit of capturing the information / early evidence for police in case of subsequent reporting.

The Trust can confirm there is no policy for testing for reported or suspected drink spiking.

Q5. Please could you tell me what funding, if any, the Trust has received (directly or indirectly) from the Home Office’s Safety of Women at Night Fund (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-awarded-for-new-projects-to-keep-women-safe)?

The Trust is not aware of any funding being received.