Report COVID-19-related medication errors, challenges and ideas to the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre

The New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre (NZPhvC) welcomes insights and experiences on the theme of COVID-19 and medication safety. The potential seriousness of COVID-19 as a cause of harm and death has meant that the virus has impacted many aspects of medication use processes and practices in hospitals, care homes and in the community.

There is likely to be a heightened risk of medication errors due to drug shortages, delays in therapy, delays or lack of usual drug monitoring, staff shortages or increased workload and new processes or procedures imposed by COVID-19 restrictions.

The NZPhvC encourages you to report any COVID-19 related medication errors, particular challenges or situations that could lead to errors and any ideas on what measures should be put in place to mitigate errors in the future. Centralised review of these events and experiences will be of value both in understanding the medication safety problems and in identifying the main lessons that need to be learned specific to the New Zealand COVID-19 pandemic.

Please report medication safety challenges, ideas, and errors associated with COVID-19 circumstances to the NZPhvC via email (covid19medsafety@otago.ac.nz) or online (anonymously if preferred) at: https://nzphvc.otago.ac.nz.