Editor - We wholeheartedly agree with your recent editorial.1 Like the hospitals studied by Barton et a/2 we fortunately have few serious medication incidents (mainly due to pharmacy intervention), but a good deal of 'low level crime' in terms of legibility and allergy documentation, in addition to other areas. The causes are varied. Clinician training in practical pharmacology (one to two years part time versus five years) is minimal compared to hospital pharmacists and drug knowledge is limited. A recent survey of our trainee doctors showed that 8/44 did not realise Tazocin was a penicillin and 7/44 thought meropenem was. Similar problems have arisen with Timentin. To compound the issue, only 10/44 trainees said that their consultants checked the drug chart on a ward round 'nearly all the time' or 'all the time'. Unfortunately, our nursing colleagues are often the healthcare professionals disciplined for prescribing errors.
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