Parkinson's Disease

(asked on 18th July 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many incidents of medication errors involving hospital patients with Parkinson's disease have been reported since the joint patient safety alert on steps to improve data reporting quality was issued by NHS England and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in March 2014.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 3rd September 2014

NHS England has advised that, between 20 March 2014 and 21 July 2014, 617 incidents in general, acute or community hospitals or mental health facilities involving Parkinson’s disease and medicines used to treat Parkinson’s disease were reported through the National Reporting and Learning System.

Improving services for people with Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions is a key priority for NHS England. Its strategic clinical networks have a specific focus on patients with neurological problems, such as Parkinson’s disease. NHS trusts and care homes in England should have policies and procedures in place to ensure that people with Parkinson’s disease receive their medicines when they are required to take them to control their illness and symptoms.

NHS England has recently launched a medication ‘safety thermometer’ that enables health and care organisations to measure aspects of medication safety on a regular basis for improvement purposes. This will enable hospitals to track their progress in reducing the number of omitted doses of medicines, including of those used to treat Parkinson’s disease.

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