The Irish Examiner writes: An estimated three million medication errors are made in Irish hospitals per year, one mistake per hospital patient per day, according to the health watchdog Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). HIQA published a report following an inspection of 34 public acute hospitals over the space of 11 months – from November 2016 to October 2017- as part of its medication safety monitoring programme. This programme aims to bring about arrangements that will “protect patients from harm related to medication use, in line with international best practice and research”, according to the report. The report found inconsistencies across the hospitals as to how they ensured medicines were applied safely, and while the majority had some form of programme in place, one in three had no formal strategy or plan to direct improvements in medication safety activities.
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