Hospital drug ‘errors affect one-in-20 patients’

DRUG errors have been identified in one in every 20 patients in a major acute hospital in Dublin.

A medication safety report showed 522 medication safety incidents were documented at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin during the first six months of last year — an average of 87 a month.

It found 8% of the errors, where a patient received the wrong type of medication, had the potential to cause temporary harm to them while 1% could have resulted in death or serious harm to the patient.

However, the report also shows just over 90% of incidents did not result in patient harm and a third of errors were spotted before they reached the patients.

Many of the incidents reported involved errors or adverse reactions that had occurred in the community and for which the patient was admitted to hospital.

Tallaght Hospital drug safety coordinator Ciara Kirke said no patient had died as a result of a drug error and that the figures reflected the hospital’s desire to report and address the problem.

A recent US study estimated medication errors in hospitals occurred at a rate of one per hospital patient per day.

Earlier this month, hospitals in Britain were told to do more to cut out medication errors after figures showed 40,000 mistakes a year were made.

The Hospital Pharmacists Association Ireland (HPAI) believes medication error rates in Ireland are substantially higher than in the US or Britain.

The HPAI, which represents pharmacists employed by the Health Service Executive, voluntary and private hospitals, points out that only a handful of acute hospitals could be regarded as having adequate clinical pharmacy services.

Ms Kirke said Tallaght Hospital’s drug safety initiative had allowed improvements to be made to enhance patient safety and prevent errors from being repeated in the future.