In June 2018, NHS improvement, the British Dietetic Association and the Royal College of Speech and Language therapists issued a Patient Safety Alert regarding the use of food thickening (or texture modifying) products for people with swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). There have been a number of incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) … Continue reading Safer modification of food and drink
Category: Resource
Valproate medicines are used in the treatment of epilepsy, bipolar disorder and occasionally to prevent migraine headaches. If taken during pregnancy, there is a significant risk that babies may be born with birth defects. Women and girls using valproate medicines must now be protected by a Pregnancy Prevention Programme, which brings valproate in line with other … Continue reading Valproate safety
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced on 6 February 2018 that he was asking Professor Sir Norman Williams to conduct a rapid policy review into the issues pertaining to gross negligence manslaughter in healthcare. Working with stakeholders, the Review considered: how to ensure healthcare professionals are adequately informed about: where and … Continue reading Williams Review
The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) launched a new patient safety learning campaign, beginning Monday 26 February. This learning campaign uses a real-life patient safety incident to explore inherent risks in pharmacy practice, to support pharmacy professionals to develop and maintain a safer culture. CPPE’s patient safety campaign takes place over six weeks, with … Continue reading CPPE patient safety campaign
In June 2017, a learning module for community pharmacists on the importance of reporting patient safety incidents was published in Pharmacy Magazine. The module was written with input from the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group and aims to help pharmacy professionals reflect on how the patient safety incident reports that their teams make contribute to … Continue reading CPD module
NHS Improvement and the MHRA have been reminding healthcare professionals of the fire risks that paraffin-based skin products can cause, following a number of serious incidents and a recent fatality. However, new information about the risk of severe and fatal burns indicates that previous warnings should also extend to paraffin-free emollients - not just paraffin … Continue reading Emollients and fire risks
Most community pharmacies already offer secure medication delivery services to patients in their homes, especially for older or more vulnerable patients. As many pharmacies have reported significant increases in requests for these services from patients and their families, the community pharmacy Patient Safety Group felt that this was an important focus area for improvement across … Continue reading Safer delivery of medicines
The Patient Safety Group has sought to better understand and to clarify the role of community pharmacists and their teams in safeguarding vulnerable adults and children. A detailed briefing has been developed which sets out a series of practice principles for community pharmacies to use in setting their own internal polices and procedures. Read the briefing … Continue reading Safeguarding vulnerable adults and children
In 2015, the Patient Safety Group worked closely with UK Medicines Information (UKMi) to further develop their risk assessment tool, which is used regularly in secondary care settings, to make the tool more accessible and valuable for community pharmacy teams. The Community Pharmacy Medication Safety Risk Assessment Tool is designed as an aid in the … Continue reading Medication risk assessment tool
The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group has looked at how making small practice changes in community pharmacies could help to minimise some of the risks of dispensing incidents involving liquid preparations (often for babies, children and vulnerable adults). Following analysis of data from 6,796 pharmacies, it was found that around 60 dispensing incidents involving ranitidine liquid for … Continue reading Liquid preparations and calculations
