MSO report (October – December 2016)

Superintendent update providing the 2016 Quarter 4 MSO report on findings from NPA Patient Safety Incident report forms received by the NPA.

Dear Superintendent,

I attach my Medication Safety Officer (MSO) report for Quarter 4 of 2016 including a summary of the dispensing errors reported to the NPA during the quarter and action points to help minimise the number of errors and improve patient safety.  There was a significant increase in the number of reports in Quarter 4, compared with Quarter 3 and the quality of incident reports was generally high.

As part of the quality payments scheme in England, a requirement to produce a written report covering patient safety incidents which have occurred in the pharmacy over the past 12 months has been introduced. Meeting this patient safety criterion will earn the pharmacy 20 points at either the April or November review point and carries a value of at least £1,280. A template report form, to be used by community pharmacies to write their annual patient safety report in order to obtain quality points, is still being finalised. I will let you know as soon as it is available, but in the meantime, keep reporting errors using the NPA Patient Safety Incident report form and printing them off/storing them electronically, as you will need these to write your annual report and present as evidence that you are reporting patient safety incidents.

Since my last MSO report, the NPA has produced the following new resources which can help you to improve patient safety:
• Monitored dosage system (MDS) resources – a suite of resources, including guidance and a template standard operating procedure (SOP), which can help to reduce the number of patient safety incidents involving MDS
• Asthma review resources – designed to help community pharmacies in England to meet the asthma review quality criterion, these can, together with the COPD pack, help pharmacists to educate their pharmacy teams about the different types of inhalers and reduce the number of instances of incorrect inhaler selection during dispensing

For further information on any of the above, please contact the NPA Pharmacy Services team on 01727 891 800 or email pharmacyservices@npa.co.uk.

Leyla Hannbeck MSc, MRPharmS
Chief Pharmacist
NPA