Summary
The Department of Health and Social Care now has a system to help identify, monitor and prevent medication errors. The aim is to help ensure the NHS becomes the safest healthcare system in the world, as well as avoiding unnecessary treatments and costs.
A growing range of indicators will be used to link prescribing data from primary care to data on subsequent hospital admissions; thereby providing a means to discover patterns regarding how inappropriate prescribing practices may contribute to potentially avoidable patient admissions to hospital.
“The indicators will work alongside other measures designed to reduce medication errors and encourage openness and transparency, such as new defences for pharmacists if they make accidental dispensing errors. Plans also include accelerating the introduction of electronic prescribing systems across more NHS hospitals this year”.
Reference
New system launched to help measure and prevent medication errors. London [Online]: Department of Health and Social Care, May 10th 2018.
This relates to:
Reference
The Report of the Short Life Working Group on reducing medication-related harm. London [Online]: Department of Health and Social Care, February 2018.
This relates back to:
Reference
Elliott, RA. Camacho, E. [and] Campbell, F. [et al] (2018). Prevalence and economic burden of medication errors in the NHS in England. London: Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health & Care Interventions (EEPRU), February 22nd 2017.
