Pharmacy Voice has secured agreement from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to review the packaging of chloramphenicol eye drops and ear drops to help reduce dispensing errors related to these products.

Research suggests that preventable dispensing errors may occur about 100 times a year with chloramphenicol eye drops. Rob Darracott, chief executive of Pharmacy Voice, said: “Our fact sheet of actions taken by pharmacy teams to reduce errors may help to reduce the occurrence of this error. The data reinforces the need for manufacturers to consider the size, shape and lettering on their packaging to help reduce these mistakes.”

Separate research commissioned by Pharmacy Voice confirmed the generally
high level of dispensing accuracy in UK community pharmacies, finding that over 99.9 per cent of items are dispensed without an error. The research considered 12 months’ data from over 6,000 pharmacies in multiple groups and found that over 200 pharmacies did not report a single error in that 12-month period.

Over 1,200 reported less than four incidents for every 100,000 items that were dispensed. The average figure was 1.44 incidents for every 100,000 dispensed items.

Mr Darracott said: “The results of our audit confirm the commitment all community pharmacy teams have to patient safety, which is reflected in the very low levels of dispensing incidents. Fostering an open culture about dispensing incidents will allow us to identify areas of risk and share learning about how we can minimise this risk.”