CQC report: Covid-19 insight - medicines safety in NHS trusts (17 November 2021)

Summary

This report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) looks at medication safety in NHS trusts, focusing on the role of medication safety officers.

Content

An estimated 237 million medication errors occur in the NHS in England every year. In March 2017, the World Health Organisation launched its third global patient safety challenge, ‘Medications without harm’, with the aim of reducing severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50% in five years.

Medicines safety is a key focus of the CQC's regulatory work with trusts, aligning with its ‘Safety through learning’ strategy and commitment to help reduce avoidable harm.

Between May and July 2021, the CQC carried out a review of medication safety in 95% of England’s NHS trusts. They spoke with MSOs, pharmacy and trust leaders in acute, community, mental health and ambulance NHS trusts to produce this report.