PRESCRIBING MEDICINES TO CHILDREN

Early day motion 186, tabled 13 December 1999 by Andrew Love (Labour/Co-operative). Signed by 80 members.

That this House welcomes the Sixth Report of the Health Committee, 28th October, Procedures Related to Adverse Clinical Incidents and Outcomes in Medical Care, which recommends that there should be placed on doctors, 'a statutory duty to provide information' to relatives if a patient dies or suffers injury; believes that this duty should be extended to include routinely informing parents if medicines being administered to their child are unlicensed for that purpose, or are not being used in accordance with the instructions on the label; notes that 25 per cent. of all hospital treatments given to children are either unlicensed or are not used in accordance with the instructions on the label; and calls on the Government to take steps to improve the quality of information given to parents by establishing a statutory duty to inform.

Signatures by party: Labour 62, Liberal Democrat 7, Labour/Co-operative 4, UUP 3, Conservative 1, Plaid Cymru 1, UKUP 1, Unknown 1.