A new report released by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia PSA has found that an estimated 93 per cent of children present to Australia’s emergency departments each day due to medicine-related problems.
The Medicine Safety: Child and Adolescent Care report reveals the extent of medicine-related problems in children and adolescents.
PSA National President Associate Professor Fei Sim FPS said the report’s findings painted a sobering reality of medicine use in Australia’s children and adolescents, showing the urgent need for reform.
“As the peak body for all pharmacists in all areas of practice, PSA continues to advocate for pharmacists to be further empowered in their roles as medicine safety experts.
“Our health system is failing children and adolescents. As a health community, we must commit to doing better, but we also need to be given the resources and tools to do better. Pharmacists are critical to ensure the safe use of medicines and must be supported to do so.
“That means adequately staffing children’s hospital wards with the expertise of pharmacists, investing in systems that capture the data needed for evidence-based policy, and improving the quality use of medicines whenever medicines are used.
“It takes all of us, across all areas of practice and indeed across all health professions, to make a difference to the children and adolescents who rely on our care,” Associate Professor Sim concluded.
Read the report here: psa.org.au/medicine-safety-child-adolescent-care-report/
