September 17th is World Patient Safety Day

Every person in the world will at some stage in their life take medication¹. Medication errors are a leading cause of avoidable harm in healthcare, in fact WHO reports that medication harm accounts for 50% of the overall preventable harm in medical care². Medication errors may come about as a result of human error due to fatigue or staff shortages and such medication errors can have fatal or life threatening results for patients.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) requires all medicine sponsors to collect and record any information they receive related to medication errors that occur with their products. This information must be considered in the ongoing review and analysis of the safety of the medicine³. This is one of the many ways that Cpharm can assist our clients in meeting their pharmacovigilance responsibilities and contribute to the goal of world patient safety day – ‘Medication Without Harm’.

For more information on World Patient Safety Day or for a list of educational webinars please visit: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-patient-safety-day/2022

1. World Health Organisation. World Patient Safety Day 2022 [Internet]. WHO; 2022 [updated 2022; cited 2022 Aug 29] available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2022/09/17/default-calendar/world-patient-safety-day-2022
2. World Health Organisation. World Patient Safety Day 2022 [Internet]. WHO; 2022 [updated 2022; cited 2022 Aug 29] available from: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-patient-safety-day/2022
3. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Pharmacovigilance responsibilities of medicine sponsors Australian recommendations and requirements. Woden (ACT): TGA; Jan 2021. 44p Version.:2.2 available from: https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/190214_pharmacovigilance-responsibilities-medicine-sponsors.pdf