Medication safety

Rates of medication errors similar across countries

The rates of medication errors in primary care are similar in health systems across the world, with most ranging between 6% and 8%, according to an international review…

How to support patients to take ownership of their medication

Patients can only benefit from their medicines if they take them correctly. Pharmacists are able to identify non-adherence and provide patients with the support they need to manage their medicines.…

Medicines optimisation from principles to practice: risk assessment tools

In this article the authors describe and share risk assessment tools they developed to help pharmacists identify and assist patients at risk of medicines-related morbidity…

How to ensure that you report medication incidents effectively

All pharmacists should appreciate the importance of medication incident reporting. Detailed and timely reports are used to influence changes in practice and prevent similar incidents from occurring…

How to deal with risks in your practice

Although it is impossible to remove risk completely, by applying risk management principles, adverse incidents and associated potential harm can be significantly reduced, say Margaret Stone and Tim Harrison. They introduce the basic concepts…

Guide to significant event audit

This guidance has been prepared by Stephen Ashmoreand Tracy Johnson, Leicestershire Primary Care Audit Group,supported by the Society’s Practiceand Quality Improvement Directorate, to help pharmacists implement risk management requirements of the new pharmacy contract in England and Wales…

Do you know why you make errors?

In the last of a series of articles, Wendy Harris, senior pharmacist at the National Patient Safety Agency, describes how various tools and techniques can facilitate the detection of systems errors and embed patient safety in every aspect of practice.…

Hows and whys of medication errors

The National Patient Safety Agency will begin piloting root cause analysis (RCA) for pharmacy staff in England and Wales in January 2004. RCA is a technique that will enhance national and local learning from incident reporting. In the third of a series of articles, Wendy Harris, senior pharmacist at…

Boots pharmacist and trainee cleared of baby’s manslaughter, but fined for dispensing a defective medicine

A Boots pharmacist (Miss Lisa Taylor-Lloyd of Kestral Drive, Crewe) and a former preregistration trainee (Mr Ziad Khattab of Alton Road, Eccles) have been cleared of manslaughter charges arising from the death of a baby after the Crown Prosecution Service asked the judge, Mr Justice Forbes, to rule …