A study led by the University of London's school of pharmacy has shown that 70% of care homes, incorrectly administer drugs. In some cases the prescribed drugs were not given at all. The consequences of these mistakes could obviously be severe. Newspaper articles that once again lay the blame (within their headlines at least) at the feet of the care home, complain of the situation but does not suggest a remedy.

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat health spokesman said

' This shocking number of mistakes cannot be tolerated...The NHS should be made to declare when staff mistakes injure or kill patients so that improvements to standards can be made'.

A case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted in my view. A Department of Health spokesman said;

'We will work with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and others to take forward the important issues raised by this study'

Frankly that does not reassure me. The residents within care homes are our relatives and as such we have a responsibility to improve conditions and procedures - simply pushing this responsibility onto the CQC is not going to get the situation improved.

What can we do about medication that is incorrectly given, or forgotten entirely?

At the Care Show at Olympia last week I saw a company that provided weekly medication - for use within care homes or private homes, in what I can only describe as a large blister pack. It can dispense pills and liquids, is labelled with the drug and when it should be taken. In addition and perhaps most importantly, it has the name of the resident and their photo on it.

I will have a word with the company and see if they would like to tell you more about it.