Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group

The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (CP PSG) was set up in February 2015 to advance patient safety culture and practice across the community pharmacy sector, including by increasing the reporting of patient safety incidents and enhancing the learning opportunities available when things go wrong.  

This passionate, self-funded Group has representation from community pharmacy Medication Safety Officers (MSOs) covering over 11,000 community pharmacies in England.  The group meets bi-monthly to openly share and learn from each other, as well as from other safety-conscious industries.  They consider how this learning could be applied and disseminated across the pharmacy network and wider health system, and then work together to create the opportunities to do so. 

Every individual MSO, and their employer, has committed to reducing patient safety incidents, sharing good practice and improving the overall approach people take when an error occurs.  They have worked on a range of safety topics over the past few years including; introducing common principles for reporting and learning from patient safety incidents, understanding the role of community pharmacies in safeguarding vulnerable people, looking at how medication delivery services can be made safer, and disseminating information and resources about serious national risks to all pharmacy teams. 

Further information about the group can be found on its dedicated website www.pharmacysafety.org or via @PharmacySafety.