The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7167 p425-429
29 September 2001

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Medication errors

Medicines management in the community

From Mr P. Johnstone, MRPharmS

The Journal (8 September, p313) noted a report by the Commission for Health Improvement, which called for all medication errors and potential drug incidents to be recorded. The report, and an accompanying leading article made no mention of the fact that primary care must also do its part to avoid medication errors.

The prescribing teams for the five Liverpool primary care groups (PCGs) have developed a simple database to record medication and prescribing errors and to classify the potential seriousness of the error. This will allow the pharmacists to identify common and repeated problems and implement the necessary educational measures and procedural reviews, which it is hoped will reduce the chance of reoccurrence.

Community pharmacists see medication errors on a daily basis but are often only able to act on the most serious problems. One of the Liverpool PCGs is piloting a project that makes payments to community pharmacists for highlighting medication errors for the practice pharmacists to act on. This makes use of the clinical skills of the community pharmacist and is the first of a number of projects aimed at establishing medicines management in the community.

The target for reduction in medication errors set out in “Organisation with a Memory” may seem daunting. However, application of a number of simple measures is a realistic way to begin the process.

Managing risk will be the focus of the annual conference of the Primary Care Pharmacists Association in June 2002. At this event, we hope to bring together a number of practical projects to reduce the risks associated with the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines.

Peter Johnstone
Prescribing Adviser
Alt Valley PCG/Octagon PCG
Liverpool, and
Professional Secretary
Primary Care Pharmacists Association

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