Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the use of automated medicine cabinets on the level of deaths as a result of medication errors in the NHS.

Medicines administration processes are complex and technology can help support staff to prescribe and administer medicines safely.

Medicine safety cabinets are used to replace or supplement ward-based medicine distribution processes. A number of differing automated medicines cabinets are available to the National Health Service in England.

The introduction of automated cabinets is one component part of the full medicine distribution processes. When combined with other interventions, such as the extension of electronic prescribing systems, evidence suggests that fully integrated electronic prescribing and administration can reduce prescribing-based medication errors by approximately 50%.