Two dead and hundreds harmed after being given wrong drugs in North East hospitals

Two people died and hundreds of others were harmed following prescription errors in North East hospitals last year, new figures reveal.

Staff at North East health trusts reported 2,375 prescribing mistakes to an NHS watchdog in 2018, including patients being given the wrong drug, failure to prescribe medicine when needed or given the wrong dosage.

At County Durham And Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, where 359 errors were found, 103 patients were harmed by prescription mistakes while one person died.

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust was the second worse in the region for patients coming to harm as a result of prescription errors. One person was killed while 56 were harmed.

An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS staff dealt with over a billion patient contacts over the last three years, while serious patient safety incidents are thankfully rare, it is vital that when they do happen organisations learn from what goes wrong - building on the NHS’ reputation as one of the safest health systems in the world."

“As part of the NHS Long Term Plan a medicines safety programme has been established, meaning more than ever before is been done to ensure safe medicine use, and nearly £80 million been invested in new technology to prescription systems.”

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Source: Chronicle Live, 22 December 2019