The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published guidance to ensure that no information is lost when a patient transfers between services.

The guidelines for health professionals, service commissioners and providers have been set out after it was revealed there was no standard procedure in place for passing on the correct information about medicines when patients move from one health service to another.

Figures published in the Pharmaceutical Journal revealed that 4,041 mistakes were identified in 3,091 reviews of patients' medicines conducted in 30 hospital trusts across England last September.

Pharmacists discovered an average of at least one medication error for each review taking place after admission.

Policy and practice lead at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Heidi Wright, said: "There is no standard procedure or specific accountability for communicating medicines information when the patient is discharged or moves places, or any agreed set of information which must be transferred about medicines."

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