• Around 1 in 30 patients are exposed to preventable
medication harm in medical care, and more than a
quarter of this harm is considered severe or lifethreatening
• 11% of unplanned hospital admissions are attributable
to harm from medicines
• Of the 41.9 million prescription items in primary care every
year - estimated 1.7 million prescribing errors and 1.4
million dispensing errors.
• Of the 2.4 million inpatient prescription items issued in
secondary care estimated 212,00 prescribing errors
Medication harm in NI
11.7 million medication errors every year