Drug errors cause appalling levels of harm and deaths, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says, as new data suggests millions of mistakes are being made.
GPs, pharmacists, hospitals and care homes may be making 237 million errors a year - the equivalent of a mistake made for every five drugs handed out.
The study said most caused no problems, but in more than a quarter of cases the mistakes could have caused harm.
The errors could also be a factor in more than 22,000 deaths.
The researchers - drawn form Manchester, Sheffield and York universities - acknowledge that there is limited data in this area so the figures are very much best estimates based on previous research, some of it going back years.
But they believe they are robust enough to warrant action.
The mistakes include:
- wrong medications being given
- incorrect doses dispensed
- delays in medication being administered
The rest were pretty evenly split between drugs given in the community by GPs and pharmacists and those handed out in care homes.
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I have previously raised my concerns on here as my wife takes quite a few medications and the issues that worry me are:
- Differences in colours of the same medications
- Different drug manufacturers used by pharmacies from one prescription to the next (i.e. different packaging)
Has anybody else had such concerns?