Reducing medication errors
PSNC's dream team
Themed issue

Reducing medication errors

Errors with medication rarely happen because of one failure alone, according to two Department of Health reports (see pp 527 and 528), but one major and avoidable cause of error is similarity of packaging. This has become more common as both branded and generic medicines are produced in the corporate liveries of increasingly large pharmaceutical companies. Often the name of the drug is the only major distinguishing feature.

This is one area where urgent action could be taken. The Medicines Control Agency approves the packaging of all licensed medicines. We believe that it should take a stronger line on corporate liveries and demand that approved names and product strengths are more prominent. It has been noted that many consumer products devote much larger areas of packaging to describe clearly the contents of the box than do life-saving, or life-threatening, medicines. Patientpacks (www.patientpacks.com) is a website on this topic.

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PSNC's dream team

The appointment this week of Sue Sharpe and Barry Andrews as chief executive and chairman of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiation Committee (see p526) brings together a “dream team” with great experience in pharmacy which will be the envy of other pharmacy bodies.

The PSNC's gain is undoubtedly the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s loss. Mrs Sharpe has served the profession admirably while Director of Professional Standards at Lambeth and the Law Department (as was) is no longer seen as merely a big stick to beat pharmacists with. Her advice and counsel to the Society's Council and management will be sorely missed.

Mr Andrews brings a wealth of experience in community pharmacy to the PSNC and is a worthy successor to David Sharpe and Wally Dove.

It is our sincere hope that the PSNC will now be able to help shape community pharmacy services to fit the 21st century. The current contract is outdated and gives poor reward or recognition for services, such as reducing medication errors, which pharmacists are well qualified to do. We have already said that “supply is history” for community pharmacy (PJ, December 11, 1999, p929). Now is the time for the PSNC's dream team to make community pharmacy the envy of the profession.

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Themed issue

Much of this issue is devoted to the pharmacists’s role in the provision of services to drug misusers. These clients often take up a disproportionate amount of pharmacists’ time, and we hope pharmacists will welcome the practical advice this issue offers.

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