Health chiefs hope to provide heroin overdose-blocking drugs in all first aid kits in response to North Ayrshire’s drugs death crisis.

Cabinet member for Health and Social Care Cllr Robert Foster said it is to be recommended that all first aid kits are updated to provide the life-saving drug in response to the high number of drug deaths.

The council was asked by Irvine East SNP Cllr Marie Burns last week what action was being taken by the health partnership following its drug death summit last month.

North Ayrshire’s Cabinet member for Health and Social Care Cllr Robert Foster said: “One of the next areas we have to tackle is is the fact that there are double the amount of drug related hospital admissions in NHS Ayrshire and Arran than any other health board.

“The roll out of first aid training and the supply of Naloxone continues, funding has been allocated to the local Turning Point (Scotland) service to target those individuals most at risk.

“The Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) intends to work with the Health and Social Care Partnership and NAC first aiders and council officers to train them in the administration of Naloxone and will recommend that all first aid kits are updated to include the supply of Naloxone.”

They will also make available £60,000 to vote on potential proposals at a Participatory Budgeting event on April 18, with the council produced an Addictions App to raise awareness of available services.

The Times reported last year how more council staff were being trained in administering Naloxone which blocks or reverses the effects of opium-based drugs such as heroin during an overdose.

The Health and Social Care Partnership say 514 Naloxone kits were handed out in North Ayrshire in 2019, with at least 45 lives reported to have been saved.