Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of medication errors made each year in the NHS.

The Department works with NHS Improvement, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Public Health England, and the Medication Safety Officer Network to improve the safety of medicine use across the National Health Service in England.

The Medication Safety Programme, covering the NHS in England, has been established to take up the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global challenge to reduce the incidence of severe and avoidable harm in relation to medication globally by 50% over five years. Progress to date includes the publication of the Short Life Working Group into Reducing Medication Harm and the publication of an evidence-based review on the Prevalence and Economic Burden of Medication Errors in the NHS in England, which has helped the programme to understand the scale of the issue and identify key areas for improvement. Based on the findings of these reports, the Programme has established four domains: patients; medicines; healthcare professionals; and systems and practice, mirroring the WHO’s key recommendations. These domains will also focus on the three key priorities of polypharmacy, high risk situations, and transitions of care.

The NHS Improvement Medicines Safety Team comprises senior pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who provide specialist insight to support medication safety across a range of healthcare settings in England. Their work covers several specific areas, including the identification of potentially new, rare or under recognised or emerging risks to patient safety related to medication; and the coordination of programmes of work with the Department, NHS England and MHRA through the Medication Safety Programme.