UK Hospitals may need to keep their hand rub under lock and key to stop patients drinking it for its alcoholic content, say doctors. Poison experts at London's Guy's and St Thomas' hospital received 19 reports of intentional ingestion over 16 months.
Accidental ingestion by children, and elderly and confused patients, was also a problem, they told the British Medical Journal. One of the reports related to a female patient with a known history of alcohol dependency who was found collapsed with an empty 500ml bottle of alcohol hand rub, lying next to another bottle.
Tests showed she was nine times over the legal UK driving limit for alcohol and the concentration in her blood was potentially fatal. While poisoning from hand rubs remains relatively uncommon, it is on the rise, they said, and suggested larger hand rub dispensers (500ml or more) could be placed within locked secured holders preventing unintentional or intentional ingestion.
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