Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8310

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Publication type: Journal Article

Kmietowicz Z.
GMC to gather data on prescribing errors after criticism
BMJ 2007 Feb 10; 334:(7588):278-279
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7588/278-a

Abstract:

The UK General Medical Council will fund new research into the prevalence and causes of errors in prescribing in the NHS-after media reports blamed the poor teaching of therapeutics to medical students for an apparent rise in safety incidents caused by poor prescribing.

The GMC, which regulates doctors in the United Kingdom and sets the undergraduate curriculum in medical schools, says that no evidence supports recent claims that trainee doctors are insufficiently prepared for prescribing when they reach the wards or that they are responsible for a rise in drug safety incidents.

Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC education committee and professor of therapeutics at the University of Nottingham, said, “Those who are claiming that new doctors are inadequately prepared had not presented evidence to support their claims. Strongly held opinions were being offered, but there was nothing to back them up.”

He was commenting on an editorial published in . . .