4300 deaths due to drug cocktails

4300 deaths from drug cocktails

01/21/2015

According to the Ministry of Health, drug or drug side effects lead to approximately 4,300 deaths every year in North Rhine-Westphalian hospitals. Cause are often drug cocktails, especially in older patients. The health minister of the state advises to medication plans.

1.5 million people take more than five medicines a day
According to the Ministry of Health, drug or drug side effects per year lead to about 4,300 deaths in North Rhine-Westphalian hospitals. Often drug cocktails, which become unmanageable by prescriptions of different doctors and self-bought remedies, cause, as the news agency dpa reports. NRW Health Minister Barbara Steffens (Green) speaks according to the „Rheinische Post“ (RP) of a terrifying development: 1.5 million people in the West German state take at least five drugs every day. For seniors over 65 years it is almost every second.

Undesirable side effects and interactions
The politician warned, pointing to unwanted side effects and interactions of the various preparations that such „cocktail“ could be dangerous. According to Steffens, around 215,000 hospital admissions are attributable to a mixture of drugs nationwide. After all, this is five percent of all hospital stays in NRW. About two percent of them (4,300 cases) end according to the Minister deadly. Often the individual medicines would be prescribed by different doctors and not coordinated. As Steffens explained, concomitant intake of various supplements could reduce the effect of a particular remedy.

Have the medication plan prepared by a doctor
The Minister of Health recommends that a personal medication plan be drawn up at the family doctor or at the pharmacy, listing the drugs taken with their active ingredients. The Ärztekammer Nordrhein has already prepared such a plan. With the help of a QR code contained on it can be determined by computer, whether the respective drug combination carries risks. In total, according to Steffens, five model projects are underway in NRW. Hospitals would also be involved in the effort to increase safety in drug therapy. According to the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Westfalen-Lippe, people who are released from the hospital often get a long list of medications. Physicians should scour the list: „The medical art is to limit oneself to the necessary.“

More deaths from side effects than traffic accidents
The pharmacists also want to better protect patients from medication errors. The Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations (ABDA) recently reported that more Germans die each year from the side effects of drugs than in road traffic. The pharmacist Professor dr. Ulrich Jaehde demanded that comparable safety levels should be introduced in drug therapy as in road traffic. The aim of the drug therapy safety (AMTS) is to make the use of drugs significantly safer in the coming years. Pharmacists can do a great deal to improve the AMTS and thus patient safety, for example as part of a so-called „medication management“. (Ad)