One in ten juniors ‘make prescription mistakes’

27 August 2010

A STANDARD system for prescriptions must be introduced to cut mistakes and improve patient safety, senior medics have warned.

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) highlighted a recent report from the General Medical Council that found that during one week, 10 per cent of trainee doctors and six per cent of consultants made prescribing mistakes.

This is in addition to GMC data suggesting almost one in nine hospital prescriptions contain errors. The RCPE blamed the various systems used to prescribe and called on the Scottish Government to bring in new rules to standardise the system across all hospitals.

A government spokesman said in a BBC report that extensive systems “were in place to ensure patient safety”, but that the government was “always looking to improve further”. He added: “The possibility of a standardised prescription form is under active consideration with our colleagues across the UK."

The RCPE said errors were also exacerbated when junior doctors have to move between health boards to finish their training. College president Dr Neil Dewhurst believes Scotland should adopt a national prescribing chart similar to that introduced in Wales in 2004.

He said: “Prescribing errors can and do occur. The adoption of standardised prescribing charts is a simple but effective way of supporting quality improvement and protecting patients. It would also facilitate and reinforce teaching of medical students and junior doctors.

“Local variation in prescribing charts has existed for many years, but has not been addressed by successive governments and should now be given greater priority. Putting it simply, patients should expect a standardised system of prescribing regardless of which hospital in Scotland they are treated. Doctors also frequently move around the NHS within the four home countries of the UK.

"It would therefore be logical to follow Wales' example by developing a national prescribing chart for Scotland initially and then to work towards a UK-wide prescribing chart for use across the whole of the NHS."

Dr Dewhurst also said that prescribing charts could include a risk scoring system to make sure patients are regularly assessed for conditions such as venous thromboembolism.