Medication-related problems are one of the most common reported causes of patient safety incidents across the NHS. Over the last 25 years, teams of researchers from the universities of Manchester and Nottingham have been working with NHS colleagues and patients to increase understanding of these problems and to find effective solutions.

We are excited to continue working to improve medication safety through our NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC). In the first two years we are going to focus on three areas of work in addition to our ongoing projects:

• Firstly, we are going to use the large amount of research that’s already been done to identify the best and most cost-effective ways of improving prescribing safety in primary care.
• Secondly, we will build on our existing research to find out how electronic prescribing safety systems can be improved.
• Thirdly, we will test methods to identify and correct potentially unsafe prescribing, focusing on the medicines used for mental health problems and pain.

The research will take place across primary care (such as GPs and pharmacies), secondary care (such as hospitals) and social care settings (such as care homes). The work will be led by Professors Darren Ashcroft and Tony Avery, who have a proven track record of using research findings to improve patient safety.

Most of our studies will be done in the North-West and East Midlands, and in some cases across England. They will be tested in settings where interventions will eventually be delivered, making the most of our strong working relationships with NHS providers, particularly in primary care.

Patients and members of the public will continue to have an essential role in our research, from deciding the questions that are most important to patients through to the design of studies, interpreting the findings, and sharing the most important messages. As Jill Beggs, one of our PPI colleagues, says:

“As a patient and public involvement member who has been involved with the research team setting up this work, I am encouraged to see the focus on addressing medication safety events that could have a positive impact on the lives of patients and their carers. I look forward to working with the team and other patient representatives to see this study develop into actionable interventions’.

And Anthony Chuter, another PPI colleague, says:

“The ‘Improving medication safety’ theme will help to ensure that health professionals have the best information available for prescribing medicines safely. This is vitally important for patients who want to be more involved in decisions where their safety may be at risk.”

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