It is not feasible to remove risk completely from what we do. However, when incidents do occur, a pharmacy is expected to have taken all reasonable steps to avoid such incidents – whether they are dispensing errors, health and safety failures or business and financial issues. It is equally important that the activities that we undertake to minimise risk are documented so that we can demonstrate that our practice is safe.

The initial step in minimising risk is to carry out thorough risk assessments, which should be written up and filed. They should include clear action plans for risk reduction and have space to record when each of the activities have been completed.

Areas of the pharmacy to look at include business and financial planning, to ensure that the pharmacy is running smoothly, and, of course, the effficiency and accuracy of the medicines dispensing process.

Factors involved in minimising dispensing errors include team factors, individual factors, product factors, patient factors and environmental/process factors, which this article deals with in turn.