Nearly one in ten prescriptions written at hospitals may contain errors, according to research conducted by the U.K.’s General Medical Council (GMC). In a study of nearly 125,000 prescriptions written over seven days at 19 different hospitals throughout northwest England, researchers found that more than 11,000—or nearly 9%—contained errors, and that 1.7% of all errors made could have been potentially lethal for patients. What’s more, though the study was originally designed to assess whether foundation trainees—the U.K. equivalent of first- and second-year medical residents—were more likely to make errors than more senior physicians, researchers found that errors were commonplace even among specialists and consultants.
