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
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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
Janice Perkins FRPharmS, Chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group, has issued a statement responding to Jeremy Hunt's recommendations for a programme of work to tackle medication error and improve medicine safety. "Whilst undoubtedly distressing, the findings of today’s reports into medication error re-enforce the importance that every part of the health and care system … Continue reading Response to medication harm reports
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
Some of the MSOs on the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group have been working closely with a collaborative of Academic Health Science Networks in the North West on a project which aims to improve the safety of medication dispensing in primary care by combining human factors and quality improvement sciences. The project uses the ‘Training … Continue reading Safer dispensing
Any community pharmacies in England looking to participate in a safety audit with data collection on the PharmOutcomes system can use the Specialist Pharmacy Service audit of anticoagulant medicines now available. Access anticoagulant audit Members of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group helped pilot and develop the audit materials, which are available on the SPS … Continue reading Anticoagulant safety audit
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
The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group is looking to ensure we are more joined up and working more closely with patients and patient groups on our shared goals around improving safety culture, transparency and learning across the community pharmacy sector for the benefit of patients. One of the organisations we will look to support, promote … Continue reading Patients Association
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
