The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7306 p6
3 July 2004

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Adverse drug reactions huge burden for health service

Adverse drug reactions account for 1 in 16 hospital admissions and cost the NHS £466m a year, according to new research. However, the authors suggest that greater input from pharmacists will help reduce them (BMJ 2004;329:15).

They assessed 18,820 patients admitted to two NHS hospitals in Merseyside over a six-month period. An adverse drug reaction was implicated in 1,225 admissions, giving a prevalence of 6.5 per cent. The average stay was eight days, which accounted for 4 per cent of the hospital bed capacity. Most reactions, fatal in 2.3 per cent of cases, were either definitely or possibly avoidable. “Simple measures such as regular review of prescriptions, the use of computerised prescribing, and the involvement of pharmacists in assessing prescribing behaviour may all reduce the burden caused by ADRs,” say the researchers.