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<p>Following publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
(NICE) guidance that people with Parkinson's disease should have their medication
given at appropriate times and should be allowed to self-administer if necessary,
the National Patient Safety Agency issued a rapid response report (RRR) on omitted
and delayed medicines on 24 February 2010, (NSPA/2010/RRR009) <em>Reducing harm from
omitted and delayed medicines in hospital</em>, which applies to the National Health
Service in both England and Wales. A copy of this report has already been placed in
the Library, and a copy is available at:</p><p>www.nrls.npsa.nhs.uk/resources/patient-safety-topics/medication-safety/?entryid45=66720&p=2</p><p>Under
the Health and Social Care Act 2008, all providers of regulated activities, including
care homes have to register with the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator
of health and adult social care providers in England, and meet a set of requirements
of safety and quality. One of these requirements relates to the management of medicines
and requires that a provider protects service users against the risks associated with
the unsafe use and management of medicines.</p><p>NHS England’s Safer Medication Practice
Team in Patient Safety, is finalising an e-learning package to help reduce omission
and delay in the administration of medicines, including for Parkinson’s disease. This
package will be available for all health professionals who prescribe, dispense and
administer medicines in hospitals. It aims to increase awareness of the frequency
of incidents and harm that are associated with omitted and delayed medicine doses
in hospital and describes safer practice</p><p>In addition, in March 2014, a joint
NHS England and The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Patient Safety
Alert, ‘Improving medication error incident reporting and learning’, was issued. A
copy of this has been placed in the Library and is available at:</p><p>www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/psa-med-error.pdf</p><p>This
alert directs NHS and independent sector organisations to identify medication safety
officers by 19 September 2014. They will be empowered to champion and facilitate local
learning from patient safety incidents, including those that arise from omissions
and delay of medicines for Parkinson’s disease. A National Medication Safety Network
is to be established for discussing potential and recognised safety issues and identifying
trends and actions to improve the safe use of medicines. The network will also work
with new Patient Safety Improvement Collaborative, that will be set up later this
year</p><p>NHS England does not hold information on the number of NHS trusts that
are involved with the Sign up to Safety campaign or the number of trusts who have
a policy of stocking medicines for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease in their emergency
medicines cupboards.</p><p>The NPSA RRR referred to above, identified medicines used
to treat Parkinson’s disease as critical medicines. Although emergency medicine cupboards
are not mentioned directly in the RRR, NHS organisations have to review and where
necessary make changes to systems for the supply of critical medicines within and
outside of hours to minimise risks related to omitted or delayed doses of medicines.</p><p>
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