National Poisons Information Service

The NPIS Edinburgh unit (at that time known as the Scottish Poisons Information Bureau) was inaugurated within the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1963 as part of an informal poisons centre network. In the late 1990s the UK health departments commissioned a review of poisons services and the newly structured UK National Poisons Information Service was implemented. The NPIS Edinburgh unit is currently one of the four poisons units which make up the UK NPIS.

NPIS Edinburgh hosts TOXBASE, the NPIS online clinical toxicology advice database. This database was set up in Edinburgh during the 1980s and has been available on the internet since 1999, and also via the TOXBASE app since 2015. TOXBASE is the primary source of information on toxicology for doctors and nurses in the UK, its pages being accessed on over 1.6 million occasions each year. NPIS Edinburgh also hosts the NPIS UK-wide Pesticide Surveillance Scheme for the UK's Health & Safety Executive.

NPIS Edinburgh is staffed by an enthusiastic group of clinicians, information scientists and administrative and support staff. More information about us can be found under 'The Team'.

More about the unit and it’s history can be found in a document published for our 60th anniversary: NPIS Edinburgh 1963 to 2023.