CQC report: Medicines in health and adult social care-Learning from risks and sharing good practice for better outcomes
The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, and its role is to register, monitor and inspect healthcare services. The CQC publishes reports of its inspections, together with any regulatory enforcement notices, to encourage safe and best practice and facilitate commissioners and patients to make choices about their treatment.
This special report focusses on the management of medicines by healthcare providers and has been compiled from an analysis of over 200 inspection reports.
The CQC has identified:
The six most common areas of risk with medicines across health and care
- Prescribing, monitoring and reviewing
- Supply, storage and disposal of medicines
- Administration of medicines
- Transfer of care between different settings
- Reporting and learning from incidents
- Staff competence and workforce capacity
The five improvement actions for mental health care providers:
- Procedures for rapid tranquillisation and monitoring
- The prescribing and monitoring of high-dose antipsychotics
- Clinical audit of prescribing, administration and patient consent
- Physical health monitoring, including the effectiveness and side effects of medicines
- Integration of medicine safety into board-level governance
Role of the Medication Safety Officer
The role of the Medication Safety officer (MSO) was defined by NHS England in 2014 and was discussed in the January 2015 Ashtons newsletter. Large healthcare organisations should have a named person responsible for medicine and medical device safety and the CQC recommends this person is responsible for the reporting of medicine incidents and promoting lessons learnt. Active membership of the National Medication Safety Network is also encouraged.
Role of pharmacists
The CQC report highlighted ‘the valuable input of pharmacy staff and how they help to ensure safe practices around medicines… and when the pharmacy team was integrated on the wards, it led to positive outcomes for people.’
Ashtons works collaboratively with its clients and provides effective medicines management solutions tailored to individual settings.
Ashtons provides medicines management solutions that improve patient care and safety
The comprehensive range of Ashtons pharmacy services is designed to meet regulatory, professional and best-practice requirements for healthcare providers.
Ashtons has the expertise and capability to assist clients to improve their compliance with CQC requirements and manage medicines safely and cost-effectively.
The report is available from the CQC website:
www.cqc.org.uk/publications/major-report/medicines-health-social-care
