2 per cent of residential care residents suffer 'medication incidents'

Just under 2 per cent of all residential care home residents in Flanders had a recorded "medication incident" in 2021, meaning they ​ took the wrong dose of medication, took it at the wrong time, were administered incorrectly or received the wrong medication.

The findings were revealed in a quality report by Flemish care agencies and are based on a count of 74,676 residents in 782 of the 809 recognised residential care centres in the region.

This year's figures represent a rise since November 2021, when 1.7 per cent of residents recorded an incident. After deaths caused by insulin overdoses in a residential care centre in Oostrozebeke, the medication policy in nursing homes and its monitoring by the Flemish government is under a magnifying glass.

During a radio interview last month, independent auditor Peter Adam said oversight was grossly inadequate. "Residential care centres have to forward these incidents to the Flemish government," he said. "But the government does not check whether those indicators actually reflect quality."

Svin Deneckere, director of the Flemish Institute for Quality of Care (VIKZ), acknowledged the need "to work on quality of care, which can be done by improving the detection of medicine incidents".

The report also finds that 1.6 per cent of 73,957 residents present on 1 June 2021 had bedsores that originated in the care home. Between May and June 2021, 4.1 per cent of 58,551 residents had unintentional weight loss of at least 5 per cent of their bodyweight in a month.

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