The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7377 p653
26 November 2005

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National Patient Safety Agency (website)

Patient identity warning

Patient identity warning

Hospital inpatients should wear identification wristbands at all times and the information shown must be correct, the National Patient Safety Agency has warned (PDF, 40K).

The NPSA has received 236 reports of patient safety incidents and near misses involving absent wristbands or wristbands with incorrect information from November 2003 to July 2005. However, it says that the wearing of wristbands does not reduce the responsibility of staff to make sure they are giving the correct treatment to the right patients by asking them who they are.