29th June 2018
Time and pharmacist support in general practice are needed to improve medicines optimisation
More time and pharmacist support in general practice would reduce medication errors
Many doctors are aware that medication errors pose a serious threat to their patients and that this needs to be addressed. Many are aware that it is a growing, complex, overwhelming, and stressful problem. Some striking statistics published earlier this year, and widely shared by the mainstream media, shed light on the scale of the problem:
- An estimated 237 million medication errors occur in England every year.
- An estimated 712 deaths in England occur every year from medication errors.
- One in 20 prescriptions has an error.
- One in 550 is a serious error.
- Errors are more likely to occur in medications for older people and patients with multiple conditions who are using many drugs (polypharmacy).
Given this, the management of polypharmacy could be seen as a new type of specialism that has to be embraced in an already overloaded work schedule.
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