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How can prescribing errors be reduced? The RCP releases a guide:

Posted on September 7th 2017

hospital negligence

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) states that an estimated 7% of all hospital prescriptions contain errors. Whilst this seems like a small percentage, these errors can sometimes seriously injure or kill patients. As junior doctors are responsible for two thirds of all hospital prescriptions, we are happy to hear that the RCP have produced a new guide for junior doctors in an effort to try and reduce this number.

The RCP state that, currently, “there is a lack of a concerted effort to address the safety culture around safe prescribing, with junior doctors often being unaware of their mistakes and not receiving the feedback that they need to learn and continuously improve.”

Hopefully this guide and its recommendations will create a safer environment for doctors and patients in the future.

What does the guide recommend?

The guide, which is called, ’Supporting Junior Doctors in Safe Prescribing,’ calls for:

  • More practical and interactive prescribing training for junior doctors.
  • Greater support from hospital trusts to create safer environments for junior doctors to prescribe.

Furthermore, it also recommends that postgraduate medical education leads should work collaboratively with medical safety offers. This collaboration could help by:

  • Allowing both parties to identify opportunities to cover safe prescribing within medical education.
  • Highlighting the need to address the safety culture around prescribing.
  • Encouraging active efforts to learn from errors.

You can read the full guide here.

In addition, you can read about hospital medication errors here.

How can we help?

If you have suffered an illness or injury due to a prescribing error you may be able to claim compensation. You can contact us by calling 01244 354688. Alternatively, you can fill in our ‘contact us’ form and a member of our team will be in touch.

Why choose us?

  • We offer free advice and assistance drafting a letter of complaint if you don’t wish to make a compensation claim.
  • We won’t charge you anything upfront, and we work on a ‘No Win, No Fee basis.’
  • The head of our specialist clinical negligence team is a dual-qualified Doctor/Solicitor.

For more information on how we can help visit our dedicated medical negligence claims page or call us on 01244 312306.

Call and speak to a member of our team on 01244 312306