The government is planning to standardize the drug management guidelines for homes for the elderly to prevent staff from dispensing the wrong medicine. This followed a series of wrong dispensations of drugs at these homes over the past few years.

Speaking to the media yesterday, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow expressed concern over rising cases of wrong drug dispensation at care homes for the elderly in the past three years.

According to the Social Welfare Department (SWD), 51 cases of elderly homes' residents who required medication to reduce their blood sugar levels taking the wrong drugs have been reported since August 2005.

Careless staff or improper drug dispensation had been confirmed the causes of 34 of the cases.

Three of the residents, two females and one male, died as a result in 2007 and 2008.

The SWD issued warning letters to the concerned elderly homes, and one of them was later prosecuted for failing to comply with the department's instruction.

"The Department of Health (HD) and SWD will follow up the cases and look for measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again," said Chow.

He added he hopes to standardize dispensation guidelines for all elderly homes so that new staffs or those who switch institutions can follow the same instructions.

"The most important task is to confirm the right medicine for the right resident and to ensure that residents do not have access to other people's drugs," he said.

In 2006, the SWD, HD and Hospital Authority (HA) established a mechanism under which the Toxicology Reference Laboratory would inform the SWD when it suspects any wrong intake of hypoglycaemic drug by elderly homes' residents.

The departments also compiled guidelines on the administration of drugs in residential care homes in early 2007. However, some care home units did not follow the instructions.

The SWD added an HD outreach team has been providing training on drug administration to staffs in elderly homes.

Roy Lam, assistant executive director of Against Elderly Abuse of Hong Kong, said manpower at elderly homes is stretched to the limited and there are not enough nurses to take care of residents that require medication.

"There should be about 1,000 nurses working in the some 700 elderly homes in Hong Kong," Lam said.

(HK Edition 10/23/2008 page1)