A study was carried out to determine the nature of medical prescribing errors identified by pharmacists in an NHS Hospital Trust. From the 587 errors detected in a one‐month period, eight were potentially grave, 151 were potentially very serious, 351 were potentially moderately serious and 77 were comparatively minor. This extrapolated to 7,044 prescribing problems a year and an estimated detected prescribing error rate of approximately 0.35 to 0.7 per cent. Pharmacists detected 63 per cent of these errors while working on wards and 36 per cent while in dispensaries. The main causes of errors were failure to obtain an accurate medication history, oversight and prescribing uncertainty. In the absence of guidelines, there was a tendency for the isolated hard‐pressed prescriber to guess or prescribe on a “that looks about right somehow” basis. This study has made medical staff more aware of the areas where they are most vulnerable to making prescribing errors. In addition, greater support is now being offered to junior doctors in checking medication histories and in creating prescribing guidelines.

Studies regarding the prevalence of CLABSIs in Pakistan are limited. However, it is known that healthcare-associated infections are a concern in many low- and middle-income countries, including Pakistan. The present study is aimed to identify the relative risk of developing CLABSIs in the hospital care setups of Pakistan. The risk of biases in included studies was assessed using Cochrane tool parameters. Analysis of results revealed a relative risk of getting CLABSIs is 1.78 (p<0.001) among patients admitted in the hospitals for greater than 72 hours. This shows that the chances of getting infected at the central line site were more than 50% among patients admitted to ICUs in Pakistan. It has been concluded that the relative risk of CLABSIs in the integrated healthcare system of Pakistan is high.

The assessment of disease pattern and burden in a defined population based on the symptomatology as well as the organic presentation is quite fruitful.Objectives: This study was designed to determine demographic characteristics and disease patterns related to different organ systems presenting at first tier of primary healthcare system. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using Basic Health Unit’s (BHU) Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) database retrospectively in order to determine the age, gender and organ system wise distribution of various diseases. Secondary data was collected from standard OPD register in which all patients that presented in the outpatient department of the facility during a period of 6 months from 1st January, 2017 to 30th June, 2017 were included and no patient was excluded. Results: Out of total 2357 patients, 1024 (43.4%) were males and 1333 (56.6%) were females. Most of the patients 1057 (44.8%) belonged to the age group of 15-49 years whereas only 96 (4.1%) were less than one year old. About 2204 patients (93.5%) presented for the first time to the BHU and 153 patients (6.5%) were follow-up patients. Majority of patients 735 (31.2%) presented with symptoms of respiratory system. Certainsystems were more involved in females than males like musculoskeletal system (257 v/s 113), respiratory system (377 v/s 358) and especially the genitourinary system (50 v/s 5). Conclusions: Addressing and treating the diseases presenting at this basic level (BHU) can prove to be very useful in reducing patient load at the level of tertiary care and teaching hospitals.