Reducing potentailly hazardous prescribing in prisons settings
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A multi-disciplinary approach to reducing potentially hazardous prescribing in prison settings: A mixed method evaluation
IRAS ID
294834
Contact name
Richard Keers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
Prisoners have greater mental and physical health problems compared to the general population. The rising number of prisoners aged over 50 with age-related chronic diseases requiring multiple medications has also led to more complex healthcare management. Medication errors is a leading cause of avoidable harm in healthcare services and improving medication safety is a priority for the NHS. However, there is currently very limited evidence from the UK regarding medication safety in prisons and interventions designed to improve prescribing practices in this setting. We will introduce a new intervention designed to improve prescribing safety in prisons. The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation and the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing hazardous prescribing and inadequate medication monitoring in prisons.
The intervention will be implemented in up to 30 prisons across the UK. It will involve: (i) identifying patients at risk of hazardous prescribing from the electronic healthcare records system used in prisons; (ii) reviewing the medication of these patients by a multidisciplinary team to develop an action plan to reduce the number of patients at risk. We have developed seven criteria defining hazardous prescribing that are particularly relevant to the prison population. We will evaluate the introduction of the intervention in several ways. We will conduct interviews with prison staff and an online survey to explore their experiences of the intervention. We will also evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention by comparing the number of patients at risk of hazardous prescribing in the periods before and after the introduction of the intervention. This project is funded by the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0271
Date of REC Opinion
14 Dec 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion