Last updated 19 January 2010
Serious concerns have been raised over the number of mistakes being made in drug treatments given to children in hospital.
New research published in Archives of Disease in Childhood claims that errors are regularly made, either when prescribing or administering the medicines.
The report authors claim that while most of the mistakes are unlikely to cause serious harm, a small number are potentially fatal, prompting calls for more effective strategies to curb the error rate.
Their findings are based on data collected for a period of two consecutive weeks from each of the 11 wards in five hospitals in London in 2004/05
Prescribing errors were picked up by pharmacists reviewing the drug charts for ten wards and administration errors were spotted by an experienced observer watching how nurses gave drugs to children on the wards.
During the study period, pharmacists reviewed almost 3,000 prescriptions intended for 444 children. In all, 391 prescribing errors were made, giving an overall rate of 13.2 per cent (one in eight), and ranging from five per cent to 31.5 per cent, depending on the ward.
The most common mistake (41 per cent) was an incomplete prescription, with dosing errors the third most common type of mistake.
A total of 161 nurses of different grades were observed preparing and administering 1,554 doses of medicine to 265 children.
In all, 429 administration errors were picked up, equating to an overall error rate of one in four, ranging from one in ten to almost one in three, depending on the ward.
In this group, mistakes in drug preparation were the most common, with the rate of intravenous administration second.
Of most concern was the fact that almost one in ten errors involved dosing mistakes, and on five occasions the observer actually had to intervene to prevent the patient suffering the consequences.
Also, of all the mistakes witnessed, only one was reported to the risk management department of the hospital.
The authors of the research conceded that their results are only based on five hospitals in London, but pointed to the fact that they included different types of hospital and ward.
They also noted that due to the absence of a wide range of specially formulated drugs for children, most drug doses for them have to be calculated individually.
Many drugs given to children are also unlicensed - not licensed for use in children - or off-label - not licensed for that particular ailment - thereby increasing the risk of error, they added.
Commenting on the report, Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb said: 'This report raises serious concerns about children's safety in hospitals.
'Everyone understands that occasional mistakes will be made but the scale of errors reported here is very worrying. Many parents will now fear that proper safeguards have not been put in place to ensure the safety of their children in hospital.
'Labour has failed to improve safety in the NHS. Ministers' priority must now be to ensure that children are properly protected. We must also find out why so few of these mistakes are being identified and reported.'
New research published in Archives of Disease in Childhood claims that errors are regularly made, either when prescribing or administering the medicines.
The report authors claim that while most of the mistakes are unlikely to cause serious harm, a small number are potentially fatal, prompting calls for more effective strategies to curb the error rate.
Their findings are based on data collected for a period of two consecutive weeks from each of the 11 wards in five hospitals in London in 2004/05
Prescribing errors were picked up by pharmacists reviewing the drug charts for ten wards and administration errors were spotted by an experienced observer watching how nurses gave drugs to children on the wards.
During the study period, pharmacists reviewed almost 3,000 prescriptions intended for 444 children. In all, 391 prescribing errors were made, giving an overall rate of 13.2 per cent (one in eight), and ranging from five per cent to 31.5 per cent, depending on the ward.
The most common mistake (41 per cent) was an incomplete prescription, with dosing errors the third most common type of mistake.
A total of 161 nurses of different grades were observed preparing and administering 1,554 doses of medicine to 265 children.
In all, 429 administration errors were picked up, equating to an overall error rate of one in four, ranging from one in ten to almost one in three, depending on the ward.
In this group, mistakes in drug preparation were the most common, with the rate of intravenous administration second.
Of most concern was the fact that almost one in ten errors involved dosing mistakes, and on five occasions the observer actually had to intervene to prevent the patient suffering the consequences.
Also, of all the mistakes witnessed, only one was reported to the risk management department of the hospital.
The authors of the research conceded that their results are only based on five hospitals in London, but pointed to the fact that they included different types of hospital and ward.
They also noted that due to the absence of a wide range of specially formulated drugs for children, most drug doses for them have to be calculated individually.
Many drugs given to children are also unlicensed - not licensed for use in children - or off-label - not licensed for that particular ailment - thereby increasing the risk of error, they added.
Commenting on the report, Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb said: 'This report raises serious concerns about children's safety in hospitals.
'Everyone understands that occasional mistakes will be made but the scale of errors reported here is very worrying. Many parents will now fear that proper safeguards have not been put in place to ensure the safety of their children in hospital.
'Labour has failed to improve safety in the NHS. Ministers' priority must now be to ensure that children are properly protected. We must also find out why so few of these mistakes are being identified and reported.'
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