Nine in 10 carers are giving patients the wrong drugs

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More than 90 per cent of carers looking after people at home make potentially deadly errors with their medicines, according to a new study.

Sick and elderly patients are being given the wrong drugs, overdoses or, in some cases, no medication at all. The mistakes are being made by paid care workers and people looking after their own relatives.

Experts fear that thousands are unwittingly being put in danger because drug administration at home is rarely monitored.

Researchers who carried out the study warned: ‘Home medication administration errors by carers are a potentially serious patient safety issue.’

NHS medication blunders have been in the spotlight in recent years. A report in December claimed one person a week dies because doctors or nurses give them the wrong drug, or too high or low a dose of the right drug. And a 2015 study in the British Medical Journal found one in 100 NHS patients is exposed to potential harm through medics’ drug blunders.

But researchers claim far less attention has been paid to mistakes made by carers tending patients in their own homes. They fear, with an ageing population, the risk of serious life-threatening errors will increase. It is estimated that 60 per cent of adults in the UK will act as a carer to an elderly relative at some point.

Thousands of elderly people in Britain take a daily cocktail of medicines to manage chronic health conditions such as dementia, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol.

A team from the London School of Economics, Imperial College London and Oxford University studied research databases for home drug blunders. 

The results revealed that 92 per cent of home carers had made at least one potentially serious medication mistake. 

Faults ranged from giving dangerously high doses to forgetting them completely.

One in 12 admitted giving too little medicine and one in 15 an accidental overdose.

Researchers blamed the number of pills many people have to take, problems understanding prescription instructions and poor communication between carers sharing responsibility.

Previous studies have found that one in eight patients at home has suffered serious side effects from drug blunders.

A young man died after being given six bottles of prescription medication when he was supposed to have a little more than a teaspoon.

Joshua Gaffney, 22, was given 84ml of the psychosis drug Clozapine instead of 6ml shortly before being found dead at his home in February 2012.

A post-mortem examination and toxicology report found that the cause of death was acute Clozapine poisoning.

Nurse Amanda Young, 41, was cleared of manslaughter but was struck off in January last year after a Nursing and Midwifery Council disciplinary panel ruled she could no longer treat patients as her ‘misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with continuing to be a registered nurse’.

Young administered 14 times the right dose of Clozapine to Mr Gaffney, above, while he was being treated for schizophrenia at home in Yeovil, Somerset.

Mr Gaffney’s mother Tina Marren said her family had been ‘devastated’ by his death.

In a report on the findings, the researchers said: ‘Medications are mostly taken in patients’ own homes, increasingly administered by carers. But studies on safety have been largely conducted in the hospital setting. The home care setting should be a priority for the development of patient safety interventions.

‘The number of carers will rise by around 60 per cent over the next three decades. They will be in a position to hinder or help the safety outcomes of those cared for.’

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: ‘Carers such as family members and parents do a really difficult but vital job.

‘It can be challenging to ensure relatives with long-term conditions are taking the right dose at the right time. Patient safety is really important and carers can seek advice from their pharmacist or GP.’

Hugh Williams, of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents, said: ‘It is easy to see that this might result in serious injury or even fatalities.

‘Carers provide a vital role and it is essential that they get the support they need.’