Pregnant patients received ‘inappropriate’ medication due to pharmacy coding errors

GP practices have been asked to review records after pregnant patients at some pharmacies were ‘incorrectly coded’, receiving ‘inappropriate supplies’ of medications as a result.

NHS England undertook an investigation into the recording of pregnancy status in the Optum PharmOutcomes IT system for the Pharmacy Contraception and Pharmacy First Services, after receiving incident reports.

It found that ‘multiple records’ were found where a patient ‘has been incorrectly coded as pregnant’. It also found that some patients received ‘an inappropriate supply of medication’, including where patients have been coded correctly as pregnant and should have been excluded from the supply of medication.

In a message to practices in Essex, seen by Pulse, NHS England said that a clinical advisory group confirmed that this is a patient safety incident that ‘requires action to prevent potential harm’ to impacted patients, and that patients ‘must be informed in line with duty of candour guidance’.

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can now add updates from Pharmacy First, blood pressure and contraception consultations to GP patient records via the GP Connect Update Record functionality, which means that the coding errors transferred to the GP record although the functionality is not yet contractual.

NHS England told Pulse that GP practices were asked to review their records and take ‘any other action as appropriate’, but the commissioner did not confirm to Pulse how many patients have been affected by the coding errors.

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Source: Pulse, 2 July 2025