Safer Care Victoria hand down new guidelines to improve anaphylaxis outcomes in hospital – 1 March 2019

A win for children and adults at risk of anaphylaxis that are hospitalised in Victoria

Safer Care Victoria hand down new guidelines to improve anaphylaxis outcomes in Victorian hospitals.

The release of guidelines includes a clinical care standard for the emergency management of anaphylaxis in hospitals and a guideline about where an individual’s EpiPen® is kept and who can use it in hospital.

This guidelines now states that: adults, teens and children who carry an adrenaline autoinjectors (i.e. EpiPen®) can now keep them on their person/at their bedside when in hospital in case they have an allergic reaction.

Of importance is the fact that the EpiPen® can now be administered by nurses, doctors and other healthcare staff as well as the individual, their family or carer.

These new guidelines are a “legacy to Louis”, a 13-year-old boy who sadly passed away after having suspected anaphylaxis in hospital. Louis’s father, Simon Tate has said that these new guidelines are “a positive for people suffering from severe food allergies in the community”. We thank the Tate family for their strength in progressing appropriate management in healthcare settings in Victoria and look to using these changes to effect change nation-wide.

For more information about the guidelines, visit: https://bettersafercare.vic.gov.au/news-and-media/new-guidance-to-improve-anaphylaxis-outcomes