The PDA has responded to the RPS-led consultation to produce an ‘error reporting standard’ for pharmacists. The PDA takes the view that the prospect of criminal sanction has not been removed and calls for substantial revisions to the document.
We ask the RPS to lead an initiative supporting employers to publicise, on an named organisation basis, their aggregated pharmacy incident data (anonymised for individuals). We believe this would support broader learning in the public interest and would help employers to focus and devote significantly more time and attention to reducing the risk of pharmacy incidents. It would help employers demonstrate the same candour expected of pharmacists.
The PDA has also called for a review of the composition of the working group to better represent patient-facing pharmacists and independents and for the group to set a vision for patient safety within the document. We have made suggestions ourselves as to what this should look like.