Hospitals make 3 million medication errors every year

An estimated 3m medication errors are made in Irish hospitals per year, one mistake per hospital patient per day, according to the health watchdog.

Hiqa has published a report following an inspection of 34 public acute hospitals over the space of 11 months as part of its medication safety monitoring programme.

This programme aims to bring about arrangements that will “protect patients from harm related to medication use, in line with international best practice and research”, according to the report.