News: ‘Prescribing Tomorrow’

27 November 2009

I remember my own errors...

I read with interest Professor Allan Cummings' article on ‘Prescribing Tomorrow’ (September/October 2009 issue). He makes some good points regarding the possible reasons for prescribing errors, although the increase in the number of drugs and their complexity of use could surely be covered by better teaching and a more interrogating exam. I learnt an early lesson when my first prescription was for 100mg of Thyroxine and not 100 micrograms (luckily picked up by a pharmacist), and two weeks later picking up potassium chloride and not sodium chloride solution to flush an indwelling feeding i/v line (picked up by a bossy old ward sister, the old almost extinct breed).

I had assumed that my training was adequate, but the truth was I had not been careful enough, and my training had been inadequate. Perhaps busy GPs don’t have the time to check on everything; perhaps they should take the time, many do. More time is needed with patients for many reasons, not just prescribing. One of the reasons for the growth in many unproven alternative complementary medicines is that the patient usually gets a 30-minute consultation.

If doctors realised that they can’t know or remember everything and that they can inadvertently kill patients, they may take more care and use better aids to prescribing, be they in books or on computer.

Dr Malcolm Vandenburg
Specialist in General and Pharmaceutical Medicine

GMC-commissioned research has highlighted the importance of continued training in prescribing for all doctors throughout their careers. For more information on the research go to pages 8 and 9 of this issue of GMCtoday.

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