Patient safety

Medication errors common in children

A child is subject to a medication error every eight minutes in the United States, according to research that analysed calls to national poison hotlines.…

Medication errors cost the NHS up to £2.5bn a year

The NHS wastes at least £1bn – and possibly as much as £2.5bn – on preventable errors, many of which are related to improper use of medication, according to a report commissioned by the Department of Health.…

Valproate poses risk to unborn children, says European regulator

Review recommends that valproate should not be prescribed to treat bipolar disorder or epilepsy in pregnant women or women or girls of childbearing age unless there is no alternative product.…

Pharmacists should no longer be at risk of prosecution for dispensing errors

New contract between the NHS and community pharmacists in England should hasten change in the criminalisation of dispensing errors.…

Creating a culture of whistleblowing for pharmacists

How do we improve the treatment of whistleblowers in the healthcare sector?…

NICE puts forward recommendations on safe use of medicines

Nearly 50 recommendations on how health and social care staff and organisations can ensure medicines are used safely have been published by NICE.…

EMA expands public access to suspected drug side effect data

The public now has access to a website containing reports of suspected side effects of drugs authorised by medicines safety regulators in European Union member states.…

Long-acting insulin ‘probably superior’ to intermediate-acting insulin

New research favours long-acting insulin over intermediate-acting versions due to the greater reduction in haemoglobin A1c, less weight gain and lower incidence of severe hypoglycaemia.…

Viagra could damage vision in people with an inherited eye disease

Sildenafil has direct effects on both the inner and outer retina, say researchers writing in Experimental Eye Research.…

Taking responsibility as a UK final medical signatory

As a medical science liaison, Lisa McCluskey travels worldwide presenting medical information. She has now been appointed final medical signatory, a role recently made available to pharmacists.…