DOCS MAKE US SICK ; Wrong Drugs From GPs Put 750,000 into Wards Errors Cost NHS Pounds 500m - Enough for New Hospital
Posted on: Sunday, 12 December 2004, 09:00 CST
DOCTORS who prescribe their patients the wrong medicines are putting them into hospital in record numbers, a damning new study has found.
Shocked researchers found that 750,000 patients were hospitalised with adverse effects from drugs they should never have been given. It's a scandal which costs the taxpayer pounds 500million - enough to build a new hospital.
The Lib Dems, who carried out a six-month probe into NHS prescriptions, claim victims could fill 32 hospitals. Yesterday their health spokesman, Paul Burstow, demanded a system to monitor patients for the first 48 hours of taking a drug for the first time.
He also called for better records to be kept as patients were repeatedly given medicines - despite reporting having had bad reactions to them.
Mr Burstow said: "These figures are deeply worrying. The people affected account for between six and seven per cent of the total hospital population.
"Patients are being struck down at an unbelievable rate and it could so easily be avoided. When you consider the number of hospital beds taken up it really is quite frightening.
"Bad reactions to medicines cannot always be prevented, but there is no system for reporting this or for monitoring the safety of new and established drugs. It's very haphazard.
"The Government has to make doctors and NHS staff report all suspected negative reactions so we can begin to tackle this massive problem." People who suffer adverse side-effects spend about eight days in hospital, the study found, and regulators admitted that GPs were mostly to blame.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) said: "Most reactions were either definitely or possibly avoidable."
Investigators found that doctors knew of the problems, but did nothing about it. Many GPs were too busy or couldn't be bothered "filling out forms".
Aspirin, diuretics, warfarin and anti-inflammatory drugs were those most commonly linked with admissions.
paul.gilfeather@sundaymirror.co.uk
-COMMENT: Page 14
Source: Sunday Mirror; London
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