Medication errors cost the U.K. nearly £100 million annually

Errors in medications — whether in prescribing or dispensing them — cost the U.K.'s National Health Service nearly £100 million a year, and leads to around 1,700 preventable deaths. To arrive at these estimates, scientists looked at a 2018 review of medication errors within the NHS, and found that approximately 237 million medication errors occur in England every year. While the majority of these errors seem to pose little to no harm, the authors estimate that 66 million are potentially significant. Adverse events from these errors were estimated to cost more than £98 million a year, from the NHS having to pay for hospital stays and care. More than half the errors were made when these medicines had to be administered to patients, while about 20% were prescription errors.