The colder weather sees a predictable increase in the prescribing of prednisolone oral liquid for children. Often these prescriptions are written by after hours or hospital-based doctors and many will be handwritten. As dosages are typically based on the child’s weight, the prescribed dose is frequently written in milliGRAMS instead of milliLITRES.
The seasonal increase in prescribing of this medicine has historically led to more reports of this error to PDL, where the dose in milliGRAMS has accidentally been translated to milliLITRES. This can lead to the patient receiv…