NHS commits to ending deadly delays in Parkinson medication first revealed by The Telegraph! B
Health service announces three-year safety improvement programme to ensure patients receive critical medicine on time
The NHS has committed to ending deadly delays in giving “time critical” medication to Parkinson’s patients in hospital, The Telegraph can reveal.
The health service announced a three-year “medicines safety improvement programme” to improve how prescribed drugs for hospital inpatients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy are managed.
It comes after The Telegraph exposed that tens of thousands of patients with Parkinson’s were being put at risk of “irreversible harm” because NHS staff were not giving them critical medication on time.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, has intervened and the health service will incorporate the issue into its patient safety strategy, in a move backed across the sector.
“People who need time critical medicines should be able to receive them on time and safely when in hospital,” Sir Stephen said.
“We have included time critical medicines as part of the national patient safety strategy and we are very committed to this work.”
About three in five patients with the progressive neurological condition do not routinely get their medication at the time they need it while in hospital, research by charity Parkinson’s UK found.
Patients who are admitted to hospital for unrelated issues such as a fall can end up struggling to get their vital prescribed medication, because they are not able to bring their own into hospital or get more prescribed while there.
The charity highlighted a lack of staff training as “a major safety concern”.
Delays of as little as 30 minutes can mean “the difference between functioning well and being unable to move, walk, talk or swallow” and changes that lead to a deterioration can become irreversible. Missed doses can be deadly.
Juliet Tizzard, the director of external relations at Parkinson’s UK, said the programme would “give NHS services in England vital evidence so that they can make tangible improvements on the ground” and make hospitals “a safe place to be”.
The issues extend to other chronic conditions and illnesses such as epilepsy and diabetes.
NHS England’s improvement programme will result in clearer guidance for hospitals to deal with patients who need prescription drugs if they end up on a ward.
Mark Mardell, who announced his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2022, said the issue of delayed medication was a ‘grave problem that needs to be addressed’
Mark Mardell, the former BBC presenter and Parkinson’s patient, described the current situation as “a grave problem, which needs to be addressed”.
“I shall be watching closely to see what action is taken, and what progress is made,” he added. “With people’s lives at risk, there is no room for complacency.”
Prof Claire Anderson, the president at Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “Ensuring patients receive their medication on time is paramount and every delay and every missed dose puts patients at risk of serious harm. We cannot afford to overlook the importance of timely medication.
“We hope the patient safety programme will implement measures to improve patient safety and ensure that time critical medicines are administered promptly.”
