Spotlight: Safety of time-critical medicines

High levels of patient safety incidents related to time-critical medicines (TCMs) — medicines that need to be given or taken at a specific time — have persisted for decades. In 2022/2023 alone, there were 17 deaths recorded as a result of medicine dose delivery being delayed or omitted entirely. Solutions, such as using e-prescribing systems, has been successful on a local level but scaling them up nationally to accommodate a variety of platforms is a challenging task. However, a new national focus from NHS England on reducing the number of these events, may finally deliver a solution. In this episode of The PJ Pod, executive editor Carolyn Wickware and senior clinical reporter David Lipanovic take a closer look at how TCMs can be administered more safely. Lipanovic’s full feature on this topic can be found here: https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/feature/every-minute-counts-taking-a-national-approach-to-time-critical-medicines