Hospitals throughout England & Wales have been failing to give some patients medication or have been late providing it

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has found that many hospital patients are not getting the medication that they require.

The health watchdog has found evidence of this medical negligence in all hospitals throughout England and Wales, where medication is being dispensed late or not at all, with 27 occurrences resulting in patients dying.

All hospitals in England and Wales are being contacted by the NPSA urging them to take appropriate action in preventing these incidents of medical negligence.

Over a period spanning from September 2006 to June 2009 reports were received by the NPSA of around 21,000 instances where medication was administered late or not at all, as a result there have been 27 deaths, 68 severe harm occurrences, with the rest being less serious cases, but still cases where medication had not given in a timely manor.

There are fears that this figure may be significantly less than the actual number, as occurrences of missed or late medication are only reported to the NPSA on a voluntary basis.

The most common reason given for missed medication was that the prescribed drugs were not available on the ward, but in many cases no reason at all was given raising concerns that staff may be forgetting to administer the medication altogether.

A Department of Health spokesperson said that patient safety is a "top priority".

Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8558476.stm