KEY POINTS:
The deaths of 286 people between 1990 and 2006 were linked to medicines, says the Green Party, which is calling for computerised drug prescribing.
Health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said the figure, from a Government answer to a parliamentary question, was probably lower than the real figure, since reporting of adverse reactions to medicines was only voluntary.
Hospital records showed that in the 2004/5 year, more than 16,700 New Zealand patients were discharged with a diagnosis of an adverse effect from pharmaceuticals.
"The Green Party strongly supports a move to electronic prescribing in hospitals as one way of reducing medication error," Ms Kedgley said yesterday.
Her comments follow the highlighting this week of the death of an Auckland City Hospital patient in 2004 after he was given incorrect medicine.
A study published in 2004 indicated 15 per cent of New Zealand healthcare mistakes involved medicines.
"Drug-related adverse events are frequent and many are preventable," the researchers said.
No New Zealand public hospitals have systems for their doctors to prescribe drugs electronically, although at least four of the 21 district health boards have some computerised machines for releasing a patient's drugs to a nurse.
The doctor's prescription is typed into the machine and the nurse enters the patient's details to obtain the drugs, reducing some of the risks of medicine administration.
The Waitemata board has leased machines for all wards at both of its hospitals.
"We save more by better inventory control and less wastage than we spend on the lease," said the board's pharmacy manager, Marilyn Crawley, a member of a national committee investigating improvements to medicine control.
Patient harm was being prevented too, but this could not be quantified.
Electronic prescribing, however, was more complex and systems were not available for installation in New Zealand hospitals, she said.
Former board chief executive Dwayne Crombie, who maintains an interest in medicine control, said an electronic prescribing system could cost millions of dollars.
He said studies had shown these systems, widely used in the United States, were beneficial, but there were questions about cost-effectiveness.
The Government is considering introducing bracelets for patients which, using electronic scanners, would have to match the barcodes on their medicines to help ensure they were getting the right ones.
Dr Crombie said such a system was used in a limited way at some hospitals, including the operating theatres at the North Shore and Auckland City hospitals.
