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Showing results for tags 'Medication'.
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Sodium chloride and levobupivacaine
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Glyco ampoules.jpg
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Clobazam.jpg
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Sodium Cholride and Metronidazole.jpg
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Which drug is which?
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Sodium Chloride and paracetamol solution.jpg
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Aspirin.jpg
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Rocuronium bromide and Midazolam
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Heparinised saline and lignocaine.jpg
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Learning from COVID-19 medical errors.jpg
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News Article
Masks 'aggravated' fatal dosage miscommunication at Watford Hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Masks worn by doctors "aggravated" a miscommunication over the dose of an anti-epileptic drug that resulted in a man's death, a coroner has warned. John Skinner died at Watford General Hospital in May 2020. A coroner has written a Prevention of Future Deaths Report (PFDR) saying he feared the same could happen at other hospitals if action was not taken. Assistant Coroner for Hertfordshire, Graham Danbury, said in the report: "As a result of failure in verbal communication between the doctors, aggravated as both were masked, a dose of 15mg/kg was heard as 50mg/kg and an overdose was administered." Mr Danbury, writing to NHS England, said: "This is a readily foreseeable confusion which could apply in any hospital and could be avoided by use of clearer and less confusable means of communication and expression of number." A spokesperson for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "A comprehensive action plan is in place to ensure that lessons are learned from this incident." Read full story Source: 15 February 2022- Posted
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News Article
CDC proposes new guidelines in the US for treating pain, including opioid use
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The federal government on Thursday proposed new guidelines for prescribing opioid painkillers that remove its previous recommended ceilings on doses for chronic pain patients and instead encourage doctors to use their best judgment. But the overall thrust of the recommendations was that doctors should first turn to “nonopioid therapies” for both chronic and acute pain, including prescription medications like gabapentin and over-the-counter ones like ibuprofen, as well as physical therapy, massage and acupuncture. Though still in draft form, the 12 recommendations, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are the first comprehensive revisions of the agency’s opioid prescribing guidelines since 2016. They walk a fine line between embracing the need for doctors to prescribe opioids to alleviate some cases of severe pain while guarding against exposing patients to the well-documented perils of opioids. “We are welcoming comments from patients who are living with pain every day and from their caregivers and providers,” said Christopher Jones, a co-author of the draft and acting director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the arm of the CDC that released the new guidelines. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The New York Times, 10 February 2022- Posted
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News Article
The class B drug ketamine could help to treat people suffering from severe suicidal thoughts, a study has suggested. Researchers from the University of Montpellier in France said the sedative could save lives, as it appears to alleviate dark thoughts in patients admitted to hospital for their mental health. The finding was based on a controlled trial involving 156 adults with severe suicidal ideas, which ran from April 2015 to March 2019 in seven French teaching hospitals. The participants included people with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. However, patients with a history of schizophrenia were excluded from the study. Although the team found the side effects of ketamine were minor and had diminished by day four, they cautioned that more research was needed to examine its benefits. “Ketamine is a drug with a potential for abuse. Longer follow-up of larger samples will be necessary to examine benefits on suicidal behaviours and long term risks,” they wrote. Commenting on the study, Riccardo De Giorgi, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, said: "These findings indicate that ketamine is rapid, safe, and effective in the short term for acute care in hospitalised suicidal patients.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 February 2022 Ketamine for the acute treatment of severe suicidal ideation: double blind, randomised placebo controlled trial- Posted
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News Article
Several drug companies have been fined £35 million for colluding to raise the cost of an anti-nausea drug used by cancer patients, taking the total fines stemming from a Times investigation to £400 million. The price paid by the NHS for prochlorperazine 3mg dissolvable tablets rose by 700%, from £6.49 a packet to more than £51, between December 2013 and December 2017, costing the NHS an extra £5 million a year. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ruled that several companies broke the law by fixing the market and agreeing not to produce a rival version of the drug, which is used to treat nausea and dizziness and can be prescribed to patients having chemotherapy. Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: “The size of the fines reflects the seriousness of this breach. These firms conspired to stifle competition in the supply of this important medication, so that the NHS — the main buyer of the drugs — lost the opportunity for increased choice and lower prices.” He said the CMA would not “hesitate to take action like this against any businesses that collude at the expense of the NHS”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 3 February 2022 -
News Article
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) could be made available to buy over the counter. Health watchdogs are proposing a re-classification of the medication so women would be able to buy it in pharmacies without a prescription, it’s claimed. HRT is mainly used to treat menopause symptoms but it is not yet known which version of the medication will be a part of the proposal, the Daily Telegraph reports. Symptoms can include hot flushes, reduced sex drive and mood swings and usually pass after a few years. More than one million women a year are believed to suffer each year but treatment is currently only available after consultation with a GP or a specialist. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We understand that for some women menopause symptoms can have a significant impact on their quality of life, and we are committed to improving the care and support they receive. "That’s why we’re developing the first ever government-led Women’s Health Strategy, informed by women’s lived experience. Menopause, including improving access to Hormone Replacement Therapy, will be a priority under the Strategy." Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 February 2022- Posted
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News Article
MPs will be asked this week to end the “shocking” practice of making cystic fibrosis patients in England pay prescription charges for the drugs that they need to stay alive. The condition is the nation’s most common inherited, life-threatening disease and affects more than 7,000 people. Prescription charges, first introduced in 1952, were abolished in 1965; then, when they were reintroduced in 1968, exemptions were made for those suffering from long-lasting ailments such as cancers, diabetes and epilepsy. But children with cystic fibrosis were not expected to live to adulthood and so the condition was not exempted. As a result of new medicines and the creation of special physiotherapy regimes, cystic fibrosis patients now live well into their 40s. “Medicine and society have moved on, so should the exemption list to reflect modern-day experience,” said Paul Maynard, the Conservative MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, who will call for an end to prescription charges for the disease at a special Commons debate on the illness this week. “As someone who has a long-term medical condition – epilepsy – it has always amazed me that adults with cystic fibrosis have to pay for their prescriptions whilst I do not.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 30 January 2022- Posted
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News Article
NHS officials who accepted £70,000 in bribes to promote prescription drugs visited GP surgeries to “switch” patients’ medication, a court has heard. Paul Jerram and Dr David Turner have been accused of arriving at surgeries claiming to be on official business and changing a patient’s medication – a practice known as “switching”. James Hines QC prosecuting, told a trial at Southampton Crown Court that the two men had used their positions with the medicine management team of Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and that if the doctors at the surgeries had known it was “not an official visit, they would have not allowed them to [make the changes]”. “They were effectively using their position with the NHS to farm out the services of the medicine management team and they received money to do so,” the court was told. Mr Hines QC said: “The prosecution case is that it is completely improper for an NHS professional secretly to promote a particular drug within the NHS to his fellow NHS healthcare professionals when he is in effect in the position of a paid influencer for the pharma company that manufactures that drug. “That is what was happening on the Isle of Wight for some years. “If it is your job within the NHS to review medication and drugs, and make recommendations or suggestions for alternative medicines to fellow NHS healthcare professionals, you are acting improperly if you secretly accept money from pharma companies, either directly or indirectly, to promote a particular medicine. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 27 January 2022- Posted
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News Article
Public urged to sign up for Covid drug trial
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Over-50s and younger adults with underlying health conditions are being urged to participate in a study of life-saving treatments for COVID-19. The study is open to those who test positive for Covid and had symptoms develop in the previous five days. Volunteers will be given pills to take at home. The study will help decide how antiviral drugs will be used, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said. Health Secretary Sajid Javid asked everyone eligible to "step forward" and "help us to learn more about medicines which could save thousands of lives". Antivirals were "part of our approach as we learn to live with Covid, by preventing the most vulnerable from being hospitalised", he said. The UK regulator has licensed both for treating Covid, with molnupiravir the first to be given the green light, in November. Both have completed clinical trials and shown promising results at reducing the risk of serious illness or death. Launched in December, it already has 4,500 people signed up but needs 6,000 more as soon as possible. You can sign up at the study website now or your GP may contact you to ask you to participate if you test positive for Covid. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 January 2022 -
News Article
Paramedics jailed for stealing medication from dying patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two paramedics have been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing medication from terminally ill patients. Ruth Lambert, 33, and Jessica Silvester, 29, of the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb), preyed specifically on people receiving end-of-life care packages, Kent Police said in a statement. The pair, who live together at Gap Road in Margate, accessed addresses of patients in the east Kent area through their work and posed as nurses to gain access to patients’ homes to steal morphine and other painkillers. They worked in tandem, one researching the addresses and sending details to the other who would visit and steal the medication, police said, with victims being targeted in Thanet, Canterbury, Whitstable, Faversham and Herne Bay. Evidence gathered from the pair’s mobile phones showed they had also conspired to steal from Secamb by taking medication from ambulances when on duty. Detective sergeant Jay Robinson, from Kent Police, described the offences as “an astonishing abuse of position”. “Many of their victims have since passed away and will never know that justice has been done,” he said. “Our investigation was carried out, knowing we had to represent those victims and do the very best for them.” Dr Fionna Moore, medical director for Secamb, added that Lambert and Silvester’s behaviour was a “clear and targeted abuse of their position and does not reflect the commitment and integrity of our staff”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 January 2022- Posted
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News Article
NHS drug pledge broken for asthma sufferers and smokers, report reveals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A promise to ensure that people with severe asthma and smokers who want to quit can get the drugs they need has been broken by ministers and the NHS, a health service report reveals. Health charities criticised the persistent lack of access to vital medications for patients in England as very worrying and warned that it could damage the health of those affected. In 2019 the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and makers of branded medicines signed an agreement, called the voluntary scheme, to increase the number of patients able to obtain cost-effective medicines on the NHS. It covered five key areas of disease in which receipt of drugs would result in “high health gain”. These were cystic fibrosis, severe asthma, stopping smoking by using the drug varenicline, hepatitis C and atrial fibrillation and thromboembolism. However, a report which NHS England commissioned – but has not published – shows that while the target has been met for cystic fibrosis and hepatitis C, it has been missed for severe asthma and smokers seeking to quit using varenicline. It compares England’s progress against that in 10 other European countries, including France, Spain and Italy. “It’s deeply concerning that England languishes near the bottom of the league table for uptake of biologic treatments for severe asthma, the deadliest form of the condition,” said Alison Cook, the director of external affairs at Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 December 2021- Posted
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- Asthma
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