Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Stephen O'Brien (Conservative) on Thursday, 4 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 December 2008. It was answered by Ann Keen (Labour) on Tuesday, 16 December 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Prescriptions

Question
(2) how many (a) prescribing and (b) dispensing errors of immunosuppressant therapies have been recorded in each of the last five years; if he will place in the Library a copy of the records; and if he will make a statement.
Answer

There were 1,015 patient safety incidents relating to prescription, preparation and administration of immunosuppressant medication were submitted to the National Patient Safety Agency's (NPSA) Reporting and Learning System (RLS) between November 2003 and the beginning of December 2008. The search of RLS was structured to include a number of named immunosuppressant medicines.There were 786 of the incidents submitted and were reported to have resulted in no harm, 180 in low harm, 48 in moderate harm and one in severe harm. The following table provides a breakdown of the reported category of error:

Category of error Number of reported errors
Prescribing 253
Preparation of medicines in all locations/dispensing in a pharmacy 242
Administration/supply of a medicine from a clinical area 520
Total 1,015
Note: The following immunosuppressant medicines were included within the incident report: Advagraf, Alemtuzumab, Azathiaprine, Basiliximab, Cellcept, Ciclosporin, Daclizumab, Imuran, Mabcampath, Mabthera, Mycophenolate, Myfortic, Neoral, Prograf, Rapamune, Rituximab, Sandimmun, Simulect, Sirolimus, Tacrolimus, Zenapax.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
485 c693-5W; 241550
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Medical treatments Immunosuppression
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk