Medication without harm: A challenge for social care as well as the NHS In March 2017, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched its third Global Patient Safety Challenge, Medication Without Harm, with the ambitious goal of reducing avoidable medication-related harm by 50% worldwide over the next five years.
This ambitious challenge was taken up last week by Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Speaking at the World Patient Safety, Science and Technology Summit, he highlighted that an estimated 237 million drug errors occur each year in England, and set out new proposals to tackle what he described as ‘appalling levels of harm and death that are totally avoidable’. The government’s new proposals include accelerating the rollout of electronic prescribing systems in hospitals, decriminalising errors by pharmacists to encourage learning and transparency, and expanding the use of PINCER, an IT tool recently supported by the Health Foundation that identifies patients at risk of hazardous prescribing.
This ambitious challenge was taken up last week by Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Speaking at the World Patient Safety, Science and Technology Summit, he highlighted that an estimated 237 million drug errors occur each year in England, and set out new proposals to tackle what he described as ‘appalling levels of harm and death that are totally avoidable’. The government’s new proposals include accelerating the rollout of electronic prescribing systems in hospitals, decriminalising errors by pharmacists to encourage learning and transparency, and expanding the use of PINCER, an IT tool recently supported by the Health Foundation that identifies patients at risk of hazardous prescribing.
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