Many carers support people to take their medicines. This is a vital element of care but if medicines are not managed properly, it can create significant risks. Everyone in these roles should follow safe handling of medication principles, including knowing what to do if things go wrong.
Examples of poor medication management:
Medication errors
These are very common. In England alone there are around 237m medication errors every year, costing the NHS at least £98m and 1,700 lives. Over half of these errors are made at the point of administration and over 40% occur in care homes. Most (72%) errors are minor but around a quarter could cause moderate harm and some are fatal. Read more about medication errors here.
Over-prescribing
If people have more than one illness, they may be taking multiple drugs and some may not be particularly helpful or effective. Good medication management includes reviewing all the medicines that a person is taking in order to understand whether some can be stopped, or doses changed.
Medicines wastage
If drugs are reordered without checking to see if previous supplies have run out, it can lead to a surplus which cannot be returned or re-used. Medicines wastage costs the NHS at least £300m every year. Safe handling of medication includes ensuring that supplies are sufficient but not excessive.
It is critical to ensure that carers have sufficient training in safe handling of medication, which can be sourced from a variety of providers such as tidaltraining.co.uk/health-and-social-care-courses/safe-handling-medication-training.
What are the risks?
At the very least, poor handling of medication can result in deteriorating health, in the absence of necessary drugs or if they are taken in the wrong way or at the wrong dose. People who are particularly vulnerable are those who are elderly, have reduced capacity or who rely on others to help them take the medicines.
In extreme cases, organisations that fail to provide safe care to people who rely on them to administer medicines can be prosecuted. This can result in individuals, as well as the organisation, being sanctioned and fined.
