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Content Article
Community Pharmacy Standard (PRSB, May 2023)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Community pharmacies
Community pharmacies are offering an increased range of services to support care for people in the community. It is therefore essential that they are able to record and share vital information about a person’s care with GP practices and other services. Using digital standards, we can ensure that care professionals and citizens have timely access to relevant information, leading to better, safer and more personalised care in the community. This Community Pharmacy Standard developed by the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) defines the information that should be recorded in the community pharmacy and sent to the person’s GP, for all the services covered by the English Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. -
Content ArticleMedicines can be purchased online from anywhere in the world. In 2021, nearly 53 million items were dispensed from online pharmacies in England, up 300% since 2016. In this blog, Dr Georgia Richards outlines the need for caution when buying medicines online, highlighting that online purchase of medications was cited in 16 Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports between 2013 and 2019. She highlights coroners concerns concerns about: the ease of obtaining drugs via the Internet without any contact with the patient’s medical practitioner or access to the patient’s records. the inability to limit the volume or the frequency of ordering. issues with the regulation of supply, importation and delivery of controlled class A drugs via the international and UK postal system. lack of regulation of the dark web.
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Content ArticlePharmacovigilance is the observation and monitoring of possible harms from exposure to a variety of pharmaceuticals, biologics and devices. In this blog, Professor of Evidence-based Medicine Carl Heneghan and Clinical Epidemiologist Tom Jefferson talk about a recent attempt to obtain data on the incidence of deaths following Covid-19 vaccination from the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) through a Freedom of Information request. They describe how the MHRA initially said they were unable to provide the information as it would cost too much to extract, and after sending a follow up request to the MHRA's Chief Safety Officer, they have not heard anything further after an initial promise to investigate. They argue that the MHRA is failing the public by failing to investigate the side effects of Covid vaccines using information from Yellow Card reports. This blog is paywalled once you have read a certain number of articles each month.
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Content ArticleEngland is the only country in the UK to still charge patients for prescriptions, with charges having been abolished in Wales and Scotland in 2007 and 2011, respectively. However, for patients in England, the cost is rising; in March 2023, the government announced an inflationary increase of 3.21%, bringing the prescription charge up to £9.65. And the number of people eligible to pay could increase, following government proposals to raise the upper age exemption for free prescriptions from 60 to 65 years. This article looks at the impact of prescription charges on health inequalities, particularly focusing on the impact of the cost of living crisis. The reporter speaks to pharmacists who regularly see patients making difficult choices about which prescriptions to collect, as well as highlighting research that suggests many patients with long term conditions are forgoing their medications as they cannot afford them.
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News ArticleThe 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. Read full story Source: Pharmacy Business, 27 October 2020
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News ArticleSome High Street pharmacies in England will start vaccinating people from priority groups on Thursday, with 200 providing jabs in the next two weeks. Six chemists in Halifax, Macclesfield, Widnes, Guildford, Edgware and Telford are the first to offer appointments to those invited by letter. But pharmacists say many more sites should be allowed to give the jab, not just the largest ones. More than 2.6 million people in the UK have now received their first dose. Across the UK, the target is to vaccinate 15 million people in the top four priority groups - care home residents and workers, NHS frontline staff, the over-70s and the extremely clinically vulnerable - by mid-February. The vaccines – made by either Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech – are being administered at hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and vaccination centres. It comes as the UK saw its highest number of daily reported coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began, with the government announcing a further 1,564 deaths of people within 28 days of a positive Covid test. On Wednesday evening, the Scottish government published its detailed 16-page plan for rolling out the vaccine, including details of how many vaccines it expects to receive every week until the end of May. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 January 2021
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News Article
Overprescribing of medicines must stop, says government
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Many patients are being prescribed unnecessary and even harmful treatments, a new report warns. The review, in England, suggests one-tenth of items dispensed by primary care are inappropriate or could be changed. Around 15% of people take five or more medicines a day - some are to deal with the side-effects of the others. The government is appointing a prescribing tsar to help with the issue and stop waste. Overprescribing can happen when: a better alternative is available but not given the medicine is appropriate for a condition but not the individual patient a condition changes and the medicine is no longer appropriate the patient no longer needs the medicine but continues to be prescribed it. Chief pharmaceutical officer for England, Dr Keith Ridge, said: "Medicines do people a lot of good and this report is absolutely not about taking treatment or services away from people where they are effective. But medicines can also cause harm and can be wasted." Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 September 2021 -
News Article
NHS pharmacies to offer blood pressure checks to tackle heart problems
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
In an effort to tackle heart problems, a new NHS scheme will be rolled out in pharmacies where patients over 40 will be able to have their blood pressure checked. The scheme, set to begin checks from October in some 11,300 pharmacies across England, will also give patients clinical and lifestyle advice or referred to treatment where necessary when getting their blood pressure checked. Helen Williams, national speciality adviser for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NHS England and NHS Improvement, said: “As a pharmacist, I am delighted that this service is being rolled out across England. Community pharmacies are ideally placed to deliver blood pressure checks, being accessible within local communities and regularly used by most adults. This service will enable people with high blood pressure to be identified and treated early and will encourage conversations about lifestyle change to help people live healthy lives for longer.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 24 August 2021 -
EventuntilUnsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. WHO Patient Safety Flagship has initiated a series of monthly webinars on the topic of “WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm”,. The main objective of the webinar series is support implementation of this WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm at the country level. Considering the huge burden of medication-related harm, Medication Safety has also been selected as the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2022. Ensuring medication safety in polypharmacy is one of the critical challenges in medication safety. Inappropriate polypharmacy has been described as a significant public health challenge, as it increases the likelihood of adverse effects, considerably impacting health outcomes and expenditure on health care resources. Countries need to prioritize raising awareness of the problems associated with inappropriate polypharmacy and the need to address this issue. All stakeholders have a vital role in driving change for the management of polypharmacy. At this webinar, we will introduce the WHO technical report on “Medication Safety in Polypharmacy”, and experiences from different countries and organizations will be shared on the proper management of polypharmacy and the factors that influence appropriate polypharmacy. The session will be available in English, French and Spanish. Register for the webinar
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EventuntilPatient Academy for Innovation and Research (PAIR Academy) and the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO) in partnership with Dakshama Health are launching a series of webinars to introduce the Strategic Framework of the Global Patient Safety Challenge - Medication Without Harm. The 3rd webinar of the medication without harm webinar series is scheduled on 21 May 2022, from 11.30 to 12.30 GMT. The theme is "Understanding the process of Medication Management to reduce medication harm”. Register for the webinar
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EventThis event from the Saudi Patient Safety Center will: Define polypharmacy and the risk factors related to it. Illustrate the importance of medication reconciliation process and its implementation strategies. Recognise physicians, pharmacists and nurses’ role in this process. Register
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Content ArticleThis open letter from the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) raises concerns about unnecessary full or part-day closures of community pharmacies throughout the UK by some large multiple pharmacy operators. The letter states that these operators are telling patients and the government that they have been unable to find pharmacists, citing an alleged national pharmacist shortage. However, the PDA's members report that this is not the case, and the letter draws attention to closures being planned four weeks in advance, and to locum pharmacists having agreed rates of pay reduced at the last minute. The PDA highlights the risk to patient safety caused by these closures, and calls for more regulatory action to be taken by the government and other regulators. The letter is addressed to: Government Health Secretaries of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales Chief Executives of the National Health Service in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales NHS Chief Pharmaceutical Officers for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales Chief Executive of General Pharmaceutical Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.
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Content ArticleThe purpose of these standards is to create and maintain the right environment, both organisational and physical, for the safe and effective practice of pharmacy. The standards apply to all pharmacies registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Access to Medicine Foundation looks at how the pharmaceuticals industry can help tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by improving access to medicines. It sets out how the unstable antibiotic market, with its fragile supply chains and tough market conditions, hinders the development of robust models that would allow medications to be more easily distributed and accessed. It features six case studies where companies and their partners are using a combination of access strategies to cut through the complexity and address access at a local level.
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Content ArticlePharmacy teams may want to develop or implement new services in their organisations to realise quality, safety and operational benefits and financial efficiencies, or to improve the patient experience. The Pharmaceutical Journal highlights eight steps pharmacists should follow to ensure that a business case is as robust as possible.
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Content Article
In this blog Patient Safety Learning considers several key patient safety issues highlighted in a recent investigation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) into unintentional overdose of morphine sulfate oral solution. We argue that in some areas, further action is required to prevent incidents of avoidable harm recurring. -
Content ArticlePolypharmacy refers to the prescription of many medicines to one patient. As more people live longer with multiple long-term conditions, the number of medicines they take often increases. This can have a significant burden on the person managing and trying to adhere to multiple medicines regimes, and can also be harmful. The Academic Health Science Networks (AHSN) Network's Polypharmacy Programme aims to support healthcare professionals to identify patients at potential risk from polypharmacy, and to support better conversations about medicines. Based on the recommendations of the National Overprescribing Review (NOR) published in September 2021, the programme aims to achieve the following outcomes: A national network of Polypharmacy Communities of Practice, all working to address the system-wide challenges of problematic polypharmacy in their geographies. Routine use of the NHSBSA Polypharmacy Prescribing Comparators to identify and prioritise patients for a shared decision-making Structured Medication Review. Increased confidence amongst the primary care prescribing workforce to safely stop medicines identified to be inappropriate or unnecessary. A change in patient expectations – to anticipate having a shared decision-making conversation about their medicines regularly, especially as they get older. A contribution to the evidence base around how to help patients to feel more empowered to open up about their medicines issues. A contribution to the evidence base around how to tackle problematic polypharmacy.
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Content ArticleDuplicate medication orders are a prominent type of medication error that in some circumstances has increased after implementation of health information technology. Duplicate medication orders are commonly defined as two or more active orders for the same medication or medications within the same therapeutic class. While there have been several studies that have identified contributing factors and described potential solutions, duplicate medication order errors continue to impact patient safety.
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Content ArticleThis article discusses how medication safety can be improved in Canada. It explores the complexities of aging, what can go wrong with medication, 'Best Possible Medication Histories', the role of pharmacists and paramedics, engaging with patients and their families, and improving communication across the healthcare system.
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Content ArticleIn this article, Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope and Eleanor Harvey from the UK Health Security Agency identify the risks of prescribing and dispensing oral antimicrobials and consider how pharmacy teams can minimise antimicrobial resistance.
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Content ArticleThe General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has written via email to pharmacists and owners of pharmacies with the GPhC’s voluntary internet pharmacy logo, to address ongoing patient safety concerns affecting the online sector. The emails highlight that over 30% of the GPhC's open Fitness to Practise cases relate to online pharmacy—a disproportionate number for the sector of the market that online services occupy. Common issues raised in these cases include: medicines being prescribed to patients on the basis of an online questionnaire alone, with no direct interaction between the prescriber and either the patient or their GP . prescribing of high-risk medications or medications which require monitoring without adequate safeguards. prescribing of medicines outside the prescriber’s scope of practice. high volumes of prescriptions being issued by the prescriber in short periods of time. The emails also recognise the benefits and risks of online pharmacies, outline how the GPhC may take enforcement action against an online pharmacy, and recommend what actions pharmacists and pharmacy owners should take in response to the patient safety concerns raised. You can view the emails in full: Email to owners of pharmacies with the internet pharmacy logo Email to pharmacists
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Content ArticleThe Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) has produced a selection of resources and guidance to help people use medicines safely. It offers information about the Know, Check, Ask campaign, encouraging members of the public to: Know your medicines and keep a list Check that you're using the right medicine the right way Ask your health professional if you're unsure The page also includes videos about: how to use the My medicines list tool designed to ensure patients and healthcare professionals know which medications and doses the patient should be taking. 5 moments for medication safety, a campaign linked to the World Health Organizations' WHO Medsafe app.
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Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Angela talks to us about how her role enables her to promote collaboration for patient safety between different layers of the healthcare system. She also tells us about how Northern Ireland is using World Patient Safety Day 2022 to help the public and healthcare staff understand how they can contribute to medication safety. -
Content Article
HSE Ireland - My Medicines List leaflet (January 2020)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Medication
This leaflet produced by the Irish Health Services Executive (HSE) provides a central place for patients to record information about their medications. It acts as a reference point for patients to use when discussing their medications with a healthcare professional and includes a reminder of the Know, Check, Ask campaign, aimed at reducing medication errors in the community. -
Content Article
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in healthcare systems across the world. In recognition of this, in 2017 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm, aimed at improving medication safety. This article provides information and resources related to the Challenge.
