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#PatientSafety - Saving 200,000 patients every year in Europe

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On 11 December, Nuno Melo (EPP) – a Portuguese Member of the European Parliament - gathered European experts together to discuss how to improve medication adherence and increase the quality of life and safety of patients, especially those suffering from chronic diseases.

Currently, there are 200,000 European patients that needlessly die pre-maturely every year due to lack of medication adherence. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in developed countries, 50% of patients do not adhere to their medication, which leads to €125 billion in excessive healthcare service expenses to European governments each year.

Delivering a speech at the event Dr. Neelam Dhinga, co-ordinator for the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Unit, in the Service Delivery and Safety Department at the WHO highlighted that the patient safety agenda in Europe should be a priority. She called for the European institutions and stakeholders to take urgent action to save patients’ lives.

Early this year (May 2019), the 72nd World Health Assembly endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day to be observed annually on 17 September. The objective of World Patient Safety Day is to raise awareness globally about patient safety and encourage global solidarity and action. The WHO has facilitated improvement in the safety healthcare within countries through the establishment of Global Patient Safety Challenge, which aims to prevent harm and errors related to medications globally and proposes solutions to overcome any obstacles to accomplishing this. According to the WHO, non-adherence to medicines is a major public health issue, especially nowadays when the population is ageing and most of them are polymedicated.

The panel discussion in the European Parliament recognised the importance of improving therapeutic adherence and avoiding medication errors to increasing the efficiency of healthcare systems across the European Union and improve patients’ safety.

Research and best practices presented during the debate showed that dose dispensing plays a significant role in helping patients to adhere to their medication. The evidence stressed that dose dispensing could improve patients’ standards and reduce the number of premature deaths and adverse events in the European Union.

Dr. Adela Martín Oliveros, expert and Board representative for the Spanish Community Pharmacist Scientific Society (SEFAC) echoed the statements of the WHO representative and emphasised that in Spain it is estimated that by 2060 the life expectancy will increase to an average of 90 years old. This will result in a shortage of healthcare professionals, especially pharmacists, as most of the elderly patients are polymedicated. Pharmacists are the last stop before the patient receives the prescribed medicine and dispensation of such medication in personalised doses (PDS) aiding them to ensure that the medication is taken correctly and on time. She emphasised that currently most Spanish pharmacists are neither reimbursed nor recognised for their therapeutic approach. She commented that it is encouraging to witness the growing political will to change this.

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MEP Nuno Melo closed the event with a statement that all decision-makers need to take into consideration the results and best practices presented on the day, acknowledge that there is a therapeutic adherence gap, open a dialogue with the relevant actors involved in the process to offer dose dispensing a clear regulatory pathway across Europe.

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