Medication Safety
Medicine safety refers to the measures taken to ensure that medicines are used safely and effectively, with the aim of minimising the risk of harm to patients. This includes preventing errors in prescribing, dispensing, and administering medicines, as well as minimising the risk of adverse reactions and interactions between different medications.
Ways in which we can improve medicine safety:
- Patients can play a role in their own medicine safety by being aware of the medications they are taking, understanding the potential risks and benefits of each medication, and taking their medicines as jointly agreed between themselves and the prescriber.
- Prescribers can improve medicine safety by carefully reviewing a patient's medical history and current medications before prescribing new medications, and by monitoring patients for potential adverse reactions or interactions between medications.
- Pharmacy teams can improve medicine safety by checking prescriptions for accuracy and providing patients with information about their medications, including how to take them safely and what to do if there are any problems.
- Manufacturers can improve medicine safety by conducting thorough safety testing before bringing a new medication to market, and by continuously monitoring the safety of their products after they are on the market.
Overall, improving medicine safety requires the efforts of multiple people including, but not limited to:
- Patients or those involved in their care
- Healthcare providers and systems
- Healthcare professionals
- Manufacturers
We should all work collaboratively to ensure that medications are used safely and effectively.
In healthcare, we want to create open and safe spaces to ask questions and discuss what matters most to patients about their medicines. We also want to identify and take positive action to reduce health inequalities and increase access at every opportunity that causes barriers to patient care and safety.
In the NHS, there are systems in place to promote and ensure the safety of medications for patients. These include patient safety alerts, medication alerts for healthcare professionals, reporting systems i.e. (Yellow Card Scheme) to identify side effects of medication and reporting systems for when a medication incident has occurred, and lessons learned need to be shared to prevent future re-occurrence.
Patient Safety Alerts
NHS England provides patient safety alerts to rapidly alert the healthcare system to risks and provide guidance on preventing potential incidents that may lead to harm or death. These incidents are identified using their reporting system to identify emerging patterns at a national level, so that appropriate guidance can be developed and issued to protect patients from harm.
- MHRA: Patient guide: What you need to know about valproate
- MHRA: Advice for male patients on valproate to use contraception
- Epilepsy Action: New rules for taking sodium valproate
- Epilepsy Action: Sodium valproate medicines and risks in pregnancy
- Epilepsy Society: Sodium valproate
- Epilepsy Society: New prescribing practices for valproate
- Young Epilepsy: New safety measures for valproate
Emollients and fire safety
As a result of national MHRA alerts regarding the fire risks of emollient use, further resources have been developed for patients and their families/carers.
• MHRA Guidance: Safe use of emollient skin creams to treat dry skin conditions
The Yellow Card Scheme is used for the reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions (side effects) to any medicines and medical devices. It also includes any suspected defective or counterfeit medicines and medical devices.
Yellow Card | Making medicines and medical devices safer (mhra.gov.uk)
Patient stories:
Video link: Responding to patient safety incidents - Valerie's story -