NHS commits to ending deadly delays in Parkinson medication
The NHS has committed to ending deadly delays in giving “time critical” medication to Parkinson’s patients in hospital, The Telegraph can reveal.
The health service announced a three-year “medicines safety improvement programme” to improve how prescribed drugs for hospital inpatients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy are managed.
It comes after The Telegraph exposed that tens of thousands of patients with Parkinson’s were being put at risk of “irreversible harm” because NHS staff were not giving them critical medication on time.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, has intervened and the health service will incorporate the issue into its patient safety strategy, in a move backed across the sector.
“People who need time critical medicines should be able to receive them on time and safely when in hospital,” Sir Stephen said.
“We have included time critical medicines as part of the national patient safety strategy and we are very committed to this work.”
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Source: The Telegraph, 15 September 2024
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