Attention pharmacies in Scotland – Are you ready for the new requirement to report complaints?

There is a new  requirement for NHS Scotland contractors, including pharmacies, to submit quarterly reports to the Health Board relating to their complaints received – Pharmapod can help.

Medication errors have been identified as the most frequently reported problem in primary healthcare for children. This has been shown in a recent study published by the journal of the Public Library of Science.

This study investigated safety incidents involving children, which were collected by the NRLS (National Reporting and Learning System) across England and Wales. Nearly 60% of the medication incidents were related to dispensing errors in community pharmacies. About a third of the recorded incidents were harmful, including deaths and severe harm. The research also found that contributory factors to the errors were due to confusion over medicines with similar names, appearance, and busy or distracting working conditions. This study highlights the importance of detection of serious healthcare safety risks. This can be achieved by implementing Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) systems that can provide detailed descriptions of these events and what the contributing factors are and close the loop between experience, learning and improvement.

One of the goals of the NHS in Scotland is to be an open, learning organisation that listens and acts when unintended harm is caused. As a result, the law on how complaints relating to NHS services are handled has now changed in Scotland. A new procedure has been put in place which aims to standardise the protocol when making a complaint. The law will require contractors, including pharmacies, to submit quarterly reports to the Health Board relating to the complaints received. In light of this, the pharmacies in Scotland must now have an appropriate reporting system that is quick and easy to use by all staff and one which efficiently demonstrate their compliance to these new requirements.

Pharmapod is the leading software for capturing and analysing Patient Safety Incidents and complaints in community pharmacies and hospitals. It makes reporting and analysis of incidents and complaints a seamless process and reduces the time spent on the management of complaints and incidents as well as on the analysis and processing of related data. It also allows pharmacies to instantly produce reports and demonstrate compliance with the new complaints reporting requirements. Safety incidents and complaints are inevitable, particularly in a primary care setting like community pharmacies. Pharmacies can greatly reduce the recurrence of such harmful mistakes by having an effective Continuous Quality Improvement system in place. Pharmapod can help your pharmacy team report and learn about safety incidents and complaints and improve the quality of your customer service and patient loyalty.

Click here to book a demo of the award winning system or email [email protected] for more information.