Scotland patient safety incident report (February 2017 – April 2017) including top tips for error minimisation

I am pleased to attach my second Scotland patient safety incident report. This is based on the near miss and error reports received from members in Scotland using the NPA online reporting tool. It covers the reports received from February to April 2017. I hope you find this report useful as a risk assessment tool for your pharmacy practice and as a quality improvement resource to stimulate patient safety discussions with staff.

The reporting tool has been well received by Scottish NPA members. Additionally, there are many NPA members who use their own paper or electronic error recording systems but would also like to contribute to this quarterly NPA Patient Safety Quality Improvement Report.  You are welcome to share your organisation’s error reports or analysis with the NPA – please contact the NPA Scotland Representation Manager Janice Oman on j.oman@npa.co.uk or 077538192588. All information received will be treated confidentially.

The more we understand why errors happen, the easier it becomes to improve patient safety in all pharmacies. This Scotland Patient Safety Incident Report can be used by the whole pharmacy team to look at their own environments to identify solutions to potential safety risks.

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 .