Medication errors can be avoided, saving an estimated $42-billion in global overall health expenditures.
According to the World Health Organization, medications are the most widely utilised interventions in healthcare, and medication-related harm constitutes the greatest proportion of the total preventable harm due to unsafe care, let alone the economic and psychological burden imposed by such harm.
In the midst of the Covid-19 global pandemic, Liyana Somakwaphe, 25, a student at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, experienced anxiety. She was referred to a psychologist as a result.
“I was prescribed medication for my condition without being told what it was, how long it would last, or how it would affect me, if at all,” she said.
However, little did she know that she would end up being addicted to the same medication that was supposed to help her manage her condition.
“I didn’t make anything of it because doctors know better and are there to help us manage our conditions. I was happy because they were helping me.
“It turns out that I am supposed to be on the prescribed medication only for a period of two weeks, then my dosage would have to be adjusted accordingly.
“However that never happened in my case. I used benzodiazepines for more than three months and when I stopped I began to feel sick, I was weak.
“When my mother finally took me to get a second opinion I was told that I have withdrawal symptoms from my medication,“ Somakwaphe told IOL Lifestyle.
“I went to the school psychologist because I was anxious, but now I can't sleep or eat, I'm weak, and I'm in and out of the hospital. When I try to stop taking the medication, I become extremely ill. I've never drank in my life, but the medication that was prescribed to me has made me feel like a drug addict.
“I kept getting prescribed more medication. I am so weak, I can no longer perform at school,” she said.
Medication errors occur when inadequate medication systems and/or human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions, or staff shortages affect prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring practices, resulting in severe harm, disability, and even death.
According to Dr Yamkela Madiba, a general practitioner at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha, it is the responsibility of physicians to explain medications to patients.
"It’s something that we should be doing, it's just that in the midst of things we end up overlooking certain steps that are quite crucial.
“However, the problems we currently face as doctors, especially in public hospitals, are that you have to see 20 patients in three hours or 60 patients in a day; this is by no means an excuse. The patient must be aware of how long they will take the medication for and what kind of side effects they can anticipate for the treatment to be effective.
“I believe there is a communication breakdown, and the fact that you, as a doctor, delegate the duty of educating your patients about their medications to a pharmacist is, in a sense, contributing to the problem,” Madiba said.
In this case, it is the prescriber's fault that someone becomes addicted to medication, especially when it comes to benzodiazepines, which are typically used for a limited time frame for acute conditions where the patient's medication is gradually tapered off, he said.
Madiba shared with IOL Lifestyle that, for example, if you were prescribed 5 milligrams, your dosage may be reduced to 2.5 milligrams for three days so that your body does not experience an abrupt stop.
In government hospitals, the situation is considerably worse since doctors must balance a variety of competing demands, including the need to ensure that every patient receives care and the doctor-to-patient ratio is optimal.
He said that part of the problem where people default on their medication is because doctors don’t always take enough time to educate patients about their actual illness and the importance of adhering to the prescription schedule.
Madiba said this often happened when the patient sees a change or improvement in their health, such as weight gain, and they automatically assume they’re fine and stop their meds without considering the consequences of doing so.
Read the latest issue of IOL Health digital magazine here.