CONCERNS about pharmacists' capacity to become independent prescribers may be misplaced, the authors of a British study believe.
Research published in the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy by the University of Leeds and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust found pharmacist prescribers "make significantly less prescribing errors than doctors".
Pharmacists from one NHS Trust, in areas where a large proportion of prescribing was undertaken by independent pharmacist prescribers, were recruited to collect data over a single week in May 2018.
Data on 5,840 prescription items was recorded, with pharmacists accounting for 1,026 (17.6%) scripts.
Across medical and pharmacist prescribers a total of 479 errors were identified, with the overall error rate for pharmacists being 0.7%, while doctors had an error rate of 9.8%.
The study noted that experienced independent pharmacist prescribers had a 1% error rate, while those with less experience had a 0% error rate.
"Pharmacists made significantly less prescribing errors than doctors," the authors said.
"85.7% of independent pharmacist prescriber errors were recorded as minor in significance, compared with an average of 31.7% for all doctor's prescribing errors.
"Actual patient harm occurred from 0.04% of all prescriptions."
The authors concluded that embedding independent pharmacist prescribers with more integrated roles in multidisciplinary teams could improve prescribing practices.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 11 May 21
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 11 May 21
