A team of community and hospital pharmacists from Lambeth, London, and from King's College hospital, London, has won the 2000 Merck Sharp & Dohme award of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists and the National Pharmaceutical Association. The team is to extend Suremed, a no-blame drug-related error and near-miss reporting scheme that operates at the hospital, to include local community pharmacies.
The system, which focuses on the processes that lead up to errors being made rather than blaming the individual who makes the mistake, will enable community pharmacists to report errors in prescribing, administration and dispensing. Reports will be analysed by the hospital team and feedback will be provided to local health care professionals via regular alerts and bulletins. Special alerts will be circulated for recurring problems or problem drugs.

Navin Joshi (customer marketing manager, MSD), Ian Simpson, Bob Rihal, Vanessa Burgess, Gillian Cavell, Christine Glover, John Young (medical director, MSD), Rebecca Russell (assistant to the head of professional development, NPA), Sonia Colwill and Alice Oborne (left to right)