The World Health Organisation, Ha Noi Pharma University and Bach Mai Hospital yesterday, May 28, launched a project to improve medication safety practice

The World Health Organisation (WHO), Ha Noi Pharma University and Bach Mai Hospital yesterday, May 28, launched a project to improve medication safety practice in Viet Nam.

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“Our aim should be zero tolerance for medication errors,” said WHO Representative Office in Viet Nam Jean Marc Olive.

“To achieve this, a collective effort must be made by health workers, hospitals, hospital management, patients, the Government and the health-care sector,” said Olive.

The project entitled “Be safe with medicines” will start by improving awareness and training, developing safe medication processes and creating systems within hospitals.

Under the framework, Bach Mai Hospital will become a national training centre for medication safety practices.

The project will also become part of clinical pharmacy training at the Pharma University so that appropriate linkages can be built between academic training and practice.

According to the Ministry of Health, the extent of irregular medication in hospitals is not known in Viet Nam.

However, as the history of deltoid muscle fibrosis indicates, big errors do happen. In 2006, the Ministry of Health raised concerns about the incidence of deltoid muscle fibrosis which had affected about 16,000 children.

The condition was eventually blamed on the injection of large amounts of antibiotics into the developing muscles of children.

As the first move in the new project, a training course on safe medication practices for health workers, health managers and policy makers will be organised early next month.

WHO estimates that in the United States, about 1.3 million people are injured by wrong treatment and 180,000 people die as a result of medical accidents. The cost of medication errors in the US alone is US$3.5 billion annually.

Another study has shown that in some countries, there are one or more errors in up to 67 per cent of prescriptions.

Up to 46 per cent of medication errors occur when new prescriptions are written when patients are admitted or discharged.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News