Public not aware of medicines safety, says GHP
Most members of the public are unaware of the safety issues that surround medicines, even though medication errors are reported to be responsible for 10 to 20 per cent of all NHS adverse events.
This point is made by the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists in its response
to a Healthcare Commission consultation on the commission’s annual
health check.
The health check, which is in its fourth year, is designed to assess
whether NHS healthcare organisations in England are meeting the standards
of care that patients and the public expect, such as providing safe and
high-quality clinical care.
In its response, the GHP advises the commission that taking the experience
of patients into account will not necessarily flag up the medicines issues
that need to be addressed. Richard Cattell, president of the GHP, added
that the guild “is supportive of any work that can be done to raise
the profile and understanding of the issues relating to medication safety
across all areas in the minds of the public”.
Following on from this, the GHP suggests that there needs to be more
specific consultation on medicines safety. “It does not necessarily
have to be the Healthcare Commission which does the actual work, but
the work needs to be done to inform criteria for future years’ health
checks,” the GHP says.
The GHP welcomes the commission’s proposed review of medicines
management in primary care, especially the focus on prescribing after
discharge. The GHP points out that good prescribing after patients are
discharged from hospital is dependent on good information from secondary
care and that complete information is not always supplied by hospitals,
nor is it always supplied in a timely manner.
One other area that the GHP comments on is the provider and commissioning
functions of primary care trusts. The guild says that pharmacists have
a “key role to play in the commissioning of services” and
suggests that pharmacists should be monitoring drug-related admissions
and readmissions to achieve reduced error rates for their population.
“This
information is not always available unless a specific audit is carried
out so is a hidden hazard for patients.” The guild also adds that
there should be an analysis of gaps in service provision relating to
medicines to inform commissioning.
The GHP response
to the consultation can be found on the guild’s
website. The consultation document “Developing
the annual health check in 2008–09” is available on the
commission’s
website.
The consultation closed on
12 March 2008. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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