Hospital staff make frequent mistakes in child prescriptions

The research, by the University of London, studied 444 child patients and almost 3,000 prescriptions.

It found that more than 13 per cent of prescriptions for children contained errors, such as incorrect dosing instructions.

In almost one in five cases, drugs were administered incorrectly. Errors included problems with preparing intravenous medicines correctly.

In one case reviewed by the research team, a six-month old baby in intensive care was incorrectly prescribed a potentially lethal dose of morphine.

Co-author of the report Professor Ian Wong said the prescription errors affect children disproportionately. He explained: "Most medicines are made for adult use and doctors frequently need to do complicated calculations to work out the dose for children – particularly for young children.

"It sometimes takes pharmacists and nurses a longer time to prepare the medicines as, again, it usually involves complicated calculation."

Wong suggested that health professionals adopt new practices based on the example of leading hospitals.

He said: "Places such as the Great Ormond Street Children Hospital (GOSH) use computer prescribing and this can help to stop some prescribing errors. GOSH also uses pharmacists to prepare injections for the wards; the nurses have more time for patient care and it improves safety."