Patients at Stafford Hospital missing out due to errors
Patients are missing out on doses of medication at Stafford Hospital due to mistakes by staff, it emerged today.
Latest data also show that hundreds of errors each month are being made with take-home drugs.
Almost seven per cent of patients missed rounds of medication in three months, the information reveals.
Bosses at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust want to bring that figure below four per cent but it was 6.8 for the period to the end of September.
And in the same quarter, 1,240 mistakes were made on forms listing medications prescribed for patients when they were discharged. By the end of March 2013, chiefs want to slash the number of errors on take-home drug forms by 40 per cent year-on-year but the latest results fall way short of that target.
The July to September figures reflect a reduction of just 10.5 per cent on the data for January to March 2012. Director of nursing and midwifery Colin Ovington said: "We identified there was an issue with medication errors at the trust – which is an issue that replicated nationally – and we are actively doing something about it.
"While we are not yet where we wanted to be at this point in the year, we have identified a number of key areas to work on and put a number of new measures in place. We are doing everything possible to ensure we meet our targets.
"This is part of the continuing initiative to improve patient safety at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust."
Improve
The September data does show a slight improvement on previous months.
Six patients of 149 missed doses of drugs due to "non-medically justified reasons", a rate of four per cent. And there were 435 errors with take home drug forms compared to 473 in August.
It comes as health watchdog Monitor continues its review of the finances of the trust, which runs Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals, as bosses try to balance the books.
Monitor is also looking at a plan put forward by Cannock Chase MP Aidan Burley about having the community run Cannock Hospital.
The MP is in talks with health regulators about the feasibility of handing over the hospital to residents to run. The idea is being looked at as an option for the future of the troubled site, which has seen the number of its wards reduced and kitchens earmarked for closure. Mr Burley's suggestion involves moving services such as GP surgeries, a library and day centre into the empty parts of the building.
