Medication safety

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Medication safety is a key initiative of the Office of Safety and Quality in Healthcare.

Every year in Australia, almost 200 million prescriptions are dispensed in the Australian health system. In a two week period, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that approximately 69% of the population have taken at least one medication and 91% of older people will have taken medicines.1

It is estimated that up to 140,000 hospital admissions each year are associated with problems with the use of medicines.1 Medicines account for up to 20% of all things that go wrong in health care and are estimated to cost $380 million per year in the public hospital system.1

Medication safety is therefore a key strategic goal for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. A number of key projects have been established at the State and National levels to improve medication safety for patients in Australia.

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1 Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care. Second national report on patient safety - Improving medication safety (PDF) : Commonwealth of Australia; 2002