PINCER

This programme of work is now complete, please contact [email protected] with any queries.


PINCER is the Pharmacist-led Information technology iNtervention for the reduction of Clinically important ERrors in medicines management.

The AHSN NENC is supporting PINCER in the region by helping patients get the maximum benefit from their medicines whilst reducing the risk associated with particular types of medicines.

Prescribing errors in general practice are an expensive, preventable cause of safety incidents, illness, hospitalisations and even deaths. Serious errors affect one in 550 prescription items, while hazardous prescribing in general practice contributes to around 1 in 25 hospital admissions.

Using clinical audit tools alongside quality improvement methodology to review groups of patients taking high risk medicines/combinations of medicines, PINCER ensures that any risks are mitigated, improving medication safety.

Outcomes of a trial published in the Lancet showed a reduction in error rates of up to 50% following adoption of PINCER.

The AHSN NENC is currently working with North East Commissioning Support (NECS) to develop a dashboard within the primary care RAIDR portal through which the clinical audit searches can be run as as the majority of primary care data in this region is held by NECS via RAIDR.

The AHSN NENC team is also working alongside all Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) across the North East North Cumbria region to enable access to the clinical audit tool, along with the quality improvement methodologies and a training package that underpin the process.

In the video below Sarah Rogers, one of the original researchers from the University of Nottingham, talks about the evidence base for the PINCER Tool and what it can do for medicines safety in primary care.

PINCER was one of the Medicines Optimisation projects selected for national adoption and spread across the AHSN Network in 2018-2020, and is continuing throughout 2020-2021.

A more detailed evaluation of the PINCER rollout linked with Hospital Episode Statistics and ONS mortality data is being undertaken as part of a £2.43 million NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research (PRoTeCT).

For more information about PINCER in the AHSN NENC region please contact our Medicines Optimisation Programme Leads Liz Brown.

The progress report on the rollout of PINCER was published in September 2020.