Prevalence and economic burden of medication errors in the NHS in England (February 2018)

Summary

Medication errors may cause harm, including death, and increase use of health care services. This project aims to summarise the evidence on the burden of medication error, namely the number of errors occurring in the NHS in England, the costs of those errors to the NHS and the health losses due to medication error.

This involves two systematic reviews, one on the incidence and prevalence of medication errors, and the other on the costs of health burden associated with errors. Additionally, economic modelling estimates the number of errors occurring in the NHS in England each year, their costs and health consequences.