A study carried out by researchers from the School has confirmed previous studies from the US which highlighted a high rate of errors in prescriptions for children. Medicines error is a world-wide problem, it has been reported that up to 9% of medication prescribed for adults has an error. Prescribing for children is much more complicated than in adults and the risk of making mistakes are higher.

The research was conducted aross five hospitals (one specialist children’s teaching hospital, one non-teaching hospital and three teaching hospitals) in the London area. It found that errors were made in 13.2% of prescriptions written for children, and that almost one in five drugs (19.1%) were prepared inappropriately. The majority of errors were intercepted by pharmacists and nurses but some errors were potentially very serious.

This study clearly shows that interventions are needed to prevent errors. Electronic prescribing systems in the US have been shown to reduce medication errors in children. The Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for Children NHS Trust is the first UK children’s hospital to have implemented a hospital-wide system which is shown to be effective in improving medication safety.

The Centre of Paediatric Pharmacy Research at School of Pharmacy and GOSH has been leading the research to improve medication safety in the UK and continues to research better and safer medicines for children.

See the BBC story here

View the report The incidence and nature of prescribing and medication administration errors in paediatric inpatients