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Showing results for tags 'Medication'.
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Content ArticleThis website allows patients and professionals to report suspected side effects to medicines or medical device and diagnostic adverse incidents used in coronavirus treatment to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) to ensure safe and effective use. When reporting patients and healthcare professionals are encouraged to provide as much information as possible.
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Content Article
Coronavirus (COVID-19): reuse of medicines in a care home or hospice
Claire Cox posted an article in Guidance
Standard operating procedure on how to run a safe and effective medicines reuse scheme in a care home or hospice during the coronavirus outbreak. -
News ArticleThe government is under pressure to go further on measures to relax rules on powerful painkillers such as morphine to prevent patients suffering “unnecessary pain and distress in the last days of their lives”. On Tuesday the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced staff in care homes and hospices would be allowed to “re-use” controlled drugs such as morphine and midazolam, with medication prescribed for one patient used for another where there is an immediate need. But the Home Office today confirmed to The Independent that it had no plans to extend the rules to the care of patients in their own homes – a restriction experts and charities have warned could leave people suffering at the end of their lives. The government announced the changes following concerns over the supply of drugs. The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) welcomed the changes announced by Mr Hancock, calling them “a significant step forward”, but added: “This only applies to patients living in care home and hospice settings, so there is still work to be done to ensure patients living in their own homes have appropriate access to necessary medication in a timely way.” Last week the RCGP wrote to home secretary Priti Patel warning that people were suffering unnecessarily due to problems accessing drugs. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 April 2020
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Content ArticleThis National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) booklet presents information concerning how better design can be used to make the dispensing process safer in community pharmacies, dispensing doctor practices and hospital pharmacies. There are a number of new factors that will impact on the dispensing process, such as: electronic prescription services; auto-id and automation technologies; more responsibilities for pharmacy technicians; and enhanced pharmacy services. These factors have been incorporated into these safer design recommendations Organisations, managers and healthcare workers involved in dispensing medicines should use this booklet as a resource to help introduce new initiatives to further minimise harms from medicines.
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News ArticleUK medicines agencies have changed their advice on ibuprofen to say that the drug can be used to treat patients with symptoms of COVID-19, although the evidence that prompted the revision has not been made public. The change follows a review by the Commission on Human Medicines’ expert working group on COVID-19 which, along with previous reviews of evidence, concluded that there is currently insufficient evidence to establish a link between use of ibuprofen, or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and contracting or worsening of COVID-19. The group’s review has not been published, but prompted the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS England, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to update their advice to say that patients can take paracetamol or ibuprofen for symptoms of COVID-19, such as fever and headache. This is a change to NICE’s recommendation on 3 April that paracetamol should be used in preference to NSAIDs for managing fever in patients with suspected COVID-19 until more evidence is available. Read full story Source: BMJ, 17 April 2020
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News Article
Alert issued to hospitals as intensive care drugs run low
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Doctors have been warned that crucial drugs used to help sedate and ventilate patients in intensive care are running out due to the demand caused by coronavirus. An alert to hospitals from NHS England today said there were “limited supplies” of muscle relaxant drugs atracurium, cisatracurium and rocuronium, which are used during intubation when patients are sedated and paralysed with a ventilator used to help them breathe. As a result of the shortages, and to help maintain supplies, NHS England said it would now manage existing supplies “centrally”. Its said supplies of atracurium and cisatracurium were likely to be exhausted in coming days, and hospitals would need to switch to alternatives that were still available. A critical care nurse working in ICU in the south of England told The Independent they were already using alternatives but that this had to be used at different concentrations and run for longer to achieve the same sedation. She said changes like this with staff overstretched could increase the likelihood of drug errors. Read full story Source: The Independent, 17 April 2020 -
Content ArticleThe World Health Organization (WHO) third Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm is to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm globally by 50% in the next 5 years, as it is estimated the worldwide burden of medication errors is in the region of $42 billion. In support of WHO's campaign, the Department of Health and Social Care commissioned a review of the evidence base on medication errors in England to assess the extent and scale of medication error. The Department also established a Short Life Working Group (SLWG) in September 2017 to provide advice to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the scope of a programme of work to improve medication safety.
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Content ArticleThe Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) is supporting healthcare professionals with the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme in England. Read about how they are helping and the resources available.
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Content ArticleFollowing the emergence of coronavirus and its spread outside of China, Europe is now experiencing large epidemics. In response, many European countries have implemented unprecedented non-pharmaceutical interventions including case isolation, the closure of schools and universities, banning of mass gatherings and/or public events and most recently, widescale social distancing including local and national lockdowns. In this report, from Imperial College London, authors use a model (semi-mechanistic Bayesian hierarchical) to attempt to understand the impact of these interventions across 11 European countries.
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Content ArticleThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency issued this guidance following recent cases, including cases with fatal outcomes, in which patients have received the wrong medicine due to confusion between similarly named or sounding brand or generic names.
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Content ArticleThe existence of confusing drug names is one of the most common causes of medication error and is of concern worldwide. With tens of thousands of drugs currently on the market, the potential for error due to confusing drug names is significant. This includes nonproprietary names and proprietary (brand or trade-marked) names. Many drug names look or sound like other drug names. Contributing to this confusion are illegible handwriting, incomplete knowledge of drug names, newly available products, similar packaging or labelling, similar clinical use, similar strengths, dosage forms, frequency of administration, and the failure of manufacturers and regulatory authorities to recognise the potential for error and to conduct rigorous risk assessments for nonproprietary and brand names, prior to approving new product names This article from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety Solutions looks at the issues and suggests actions.
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Content ArticleClinically focused presentation on Oliver's story from Steve Turner, given to the NICE Medicines & Prescribing Associates on 1 May 2019.
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News ArticleScientists and senior doctors have backed claims by France’s health minister that people showing symptoms of COVID-19 should use paracetamol (acetaminophen) rather than ibuprofen, a drug they said might exacerbate the condition. The minister, Oliver Veran, tweeted on Saturday 14 March that people with suspected COVID-19 should avoid anti-inflammatory drugs. “Taking anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, cortisone . . .) could be an aggravating factor for the infection. If you have a fever, take paracetamol,” he said. Jean-Louis Montastruc, Professor of Medical and Clinical Pharmacology at the Central University Hospital in Toulouse, said that such deleterious effects from NSAIDS would not be a surprise given that since 2019, on the advice of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products, French health workers have been told not to treat fever or infections with ibuprofen. Experts in the UK backed this sentiment. Paul Little, Professor of Primary Care Research at the University of Southampton, said that there was good evidence “that prolonged illness or the complications of respiratory infections may be more common when NSAIDs are used—both respiratory or septic complications and cardiovascular complications.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 17 March 2020
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Content ArticleDo you know your medicines? Do you keep a list? Can you describe and discuss your medicines with healthcare professionals and family when you want to? Ireland's Health Service Executive's National Medication Safety Programme works with patients to improve the safe use of medicines.
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Content ArticleMore than 30 years have passed since the near-fatal medication error but Michael Villeneuve, CEO Canadian Nursing Association, recalls the moment with absolute clarity.
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Content Article
The problem with medication reconciliation
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
Medication reconciliation (‘med rec’, as it is often called) refers to the ‘process of identifying the most accurate list of all medications a patient is taking … and using this list to provide correct medications for patients anywhere within the health system’. Two recent systematic reviews summarised the evidence for med rec interventions, finding that several med rec interventions reduced medication history errors and errors in patients’ admission and discharge medication regimens. -
Content ArticleIn this article, Berlanda et al. discuss the safety of different medical treatments for endometriosis to relieve pain.
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Content ArticleThe aim of the Patient Safety and Access Initiative of India Foundation is to improve accessibility to safe and quality healthcare for all under Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and tackling the menace of spurious and not of standards medicines in the supply chain globally.
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News Article
Woman died after being given the wrong medication
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An 87-year-old woman died after her carers gave her the wrong medication, a coroner was told. Heather Planner, from Butler's Cross in Buckinghamshire, died at Wycombe Hospital on 1 April from a stroke. Senior coroner Crispin Butler heard three staff from Carewatch Mid Bucks had failed to spot tablets handed over by the pharmacy were for a male patient. Mr Butler said action should be taken to prevent similar deaths. A hearing in Beaconsfield on Thursday, where he issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report, followed an inquest in November. In the report he said he was told at the inquest that the carers from Carewatch Mid Bucks gave widow Mrs Planner the wrong medication four times a day for two and a half days. She suffered a fatal stroke because she did not receive her proper apixaban anticoagulation medication. Mr Butler said he would send his concerns to the chief coroner and the Care Quality Commission. He said there was no procedure in place to ensure individual carers read and specifically acknowledged any medication changes. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 February 2020 -
Content ArticleWhile approximately one in ten Americans suffers from a rare disease, only 5% of rare diseases have a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatment. Congressional and regulatory efforts to stimulate the development of rare-disease treatments, while laudable, have not resolved the fundamental issues surrounding rare-disease treatment development. Indeed, small patient populations, incomplete scientific understanding of rare diseases, and high development costs continually limit the availability of rare-disease treatments. To illustrate the struggle of developing and approving safe rare-disease treatments, this article from While approximately one in ten Americans suffers from a rare disease, only 5 percent of rare diseases have a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatment. Congressional and regulatory efforts to stimulate the development of rare-disease treatments, while laudable, have not resolved the fundamental issues surrounding rare-disease treatment development. Indeed, small patient populations, incomplete scientific understanding of rare diseases, and high development costs continually limit the availability of rare-disease treatments. To illustrate the struggle of developing and approving safe rare-disease treatments, this article from Julien B Bannister begins by discussing the approval of Eteplirsen, the first drug approved for treating a rare disease called Duchenne muscular dystrophy. After exploring the current drug regulation system and how this impacts the availability of rare-disease treatments, he examines the 21st Century Cures Act's patient experience data provisions and the pending Trickett Wendler Right to Try Act. Ultimately, the unmet therapeutic needs of rare-disease patients can be met while protecting patient safety. Bannister reasons that, if carefully implemented, the 21st Century Cures Act and the Trickett Wendler Right to Try Act could work in tandem to safely facilitate patient access to rare-disease treatments.
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Content ArticleThis was the first Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) Pharmaceutical Sector group organised event, where the systems and human factors challenges of labelling and packaging were discussed by a wide-ranging audience across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
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News Article
Not enough pharmacists are aware of the yellow card scheme
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Every pharmacist must report adverse drug reactions using the yellow card scheme, says chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group, Janice Perkins Polypharmacy, when different medications are used by an individual at the same time, is becoming increasingly common because people are living for longer and with multiple different illnesses. One study, published in 2018 by the Oxford University Press, found that over half (54%) of those aged 65 years and above who took part in the study had two or more long-term conditions, for which they could have been taking a range of medicines. Read full story Source: Community Pharmacy News, 17 February 2020 -
Content ArticleIn this PharmaTimes article, Anna Smith discusses a survey, published by Medicspot, that has revealed that pharmacists are “worried” about the supply of medicines to the UK, after we officially left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020.
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Content ArticleThe Central Alerting System (CAS) is a web-based cascading system for issuing patient safety alerts, important public health messages and other safety critical information and guidance to the NHS and others, including independent providers of health and social care. Alerts available on the CAS website include National Patient Safety Alerts (from MHRA, NHS England and NHS Improvement and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)), NHS England and NHS Improvement Estates Alerts, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Alerts, and Department of Health & Social Care Supply Disruption alerts.
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Content ArticleInterventions information related to the patient’s medication and hospital stay is provided to the community pharmacists on discharge from hospital, who undertake a two-part service involving medicines reconciliation and a medicine use review. To investigate the association of this discharge medicines review (DMR) service with hospital readmission, a data linking process was undertaken across six national databases. The objective of this research, published by BMJ Open, was to evaluate the association of the DMR community pharmacy service with hospital readmissions through linking National Health Service data sets.
