The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has asked community pharmacies to report all patient safety incidents despite growing work pressure due to a persisting virus pandemic.
Since March, there has been a significant decrease in the number of patient safety incidents being reported, the NPA said in its medication safety update for the second quarter of 2020.
Overall, there was a 44.5% decrease in the number of incidents reported during the second quarter of the year, compared to the first quarter of 2020.
There was a 40.6% decrease in the number of patient safety incidents when compared to the same quarter in 2019.
“This is a significant reduction in number of incidents being reported. This may be due to the increased workload and pressure on pharmacy teams due to COVID-19 pandemic, whereby pharmacy teams may not be prioritising reporting of patient safety incidents, or due to other, as yet unknown, reasons,” NPA said in its update.
NPA advises community pharmacists to ensure that they report the actual degree of harm caused to the patient and not the potential harm that could have happened.
The pharmacy body also suggested pharmacists should make sure that they complete a detailed outcome if an incident did lead to moderate or severe harm to the patient. This allows a thorough analysis to be undertaken by the NPA.
Community pharmacists are also advised to ensure the incident form is fully completed, is accurate and includes sufficient details to allow meaningful analysis of the incident.
Source: Pharmacy Business, 27 October 2020
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