Diabetes in hospital: could more specialist pharmacists reduce high error rates? Error rates for insulin and diabetes medicines among hospital inpatients remain unacceptably high, yet there is a severe lack of specialist diabetes pharmacists across the NHS.…
Rising to the challenge: communicating medicines-related information across a large and diverse health boardThe rate of prescribing errors in primary care is at least 11%, and 1 in 10 patients may experience a medication error while in hospital; it is crucial that medicines governance processes are in place to support the safe use of medicines. Communication is an essential element of medicines governance…
The impact of a medicines administration pharmacist on patient safety and medicines management: a service evaluation This study considers the benefits of the introduction of a medicines administration pharmacist on an inpatient ward at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.…
Patients must be warned not to swallow betamethasone soluble tabletsThe views expressed in this letter are those of the author’s. If you would like to submit a letter to The Pharmaceutical Journal, please click here. The use of betamethasone 500 microgram soluble tablets as a mouthwash is referenced in national guidance sources as a treatment for ora…
Access to pharmacists at all times would reduce medication errors in hospital, concludes review The review also said that wider implementation of electronic prescribing systems and an integrated electronic health record could help reduce errors.…
LloydsPharmacy reduces amlodipine and amitriptyline dispensing errors by 77% The multiple's Safer Care patient safety programme, aimed to eliminate look-alike, sound-alike dispensing errors, achieved a significant reduction in mistakes in 2020.…
Pharmacist interventions can improve medication safety for older care home residents, study finds A pioneering study has synthesised evidence of the effectiveness of pharmacist-led interventions to reduce adverse drug events in older people living in care homes.…
Fatal mistakes: why do ten-fold medication errors in children keep happening? This feature explores the issue of ten-fold medication errors in children — currently the subject of a national investigation — and what could be done to eliminate them once and for all.…
Families are struggling to use medicines at home — we must truly involve them in their own safety Surprisingly few medicine errors in children in the home setting are reported, yet evidence suggests that parents sometimes struggle here. We can tackle this hidden medicines safety issue by putting families’ insight at the heart of our interventions.…
NHS investigation body launches inquiry into medication errors in children The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch will explore the risks of medication errors occurring, following an incident involving a child aged four years.…
