NPA Chief Pharmacist Leyla Hannbeck’s Medication Safety Officer (MSO) report for Quarter 4 of 2016 has been published, 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. In the meantime, keep reporting errors using the Patient Safety Incident report form on the NPA website, 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 the last MSO report, the NPA has produced new resources which can help you to improve patient safety, including monitored dosage system (MDS) resources and asthma review resources.