Healthcare Providers

Prescribing errors in general practice can put patients at risk. 216 GP practices in our region have implemented the PINCER programme to identify and protect patients at clinical risk from their prescriptions.  

This will increase the quality of life for patients and their families by, for example, lowering the number of gastrointestinal bleeds and hence the number of preventable hospital admissions and deaths. Prescribing errors in general practice are an expensive, preventable cause of safety incidents. Research shows that serious errors affect one in 550 prescription items, while hazardous prescribing in general practice contributes to around one in 25 hospital admissions.

The PINCER intervention is led by primary care pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. It involves using computerised prescribing safety indicators to search GP clinical systems, identifying patients who are at risk from their medications and establishing action plans to improve systems and reduce the risk to patients. We continue to support both Clinical Commissioning Groups and practices to get their Data Protection Agreements signed and their data uploaded.

For more information please contact us