UKMi are committed to ensuring the highest standards in patient safety and care. To support this, the Quality and Risk Management Group (QRMG) have introduced the incident reporting process developed by UKMi members, for UKMi members. Also see the QRMG webinar 'ALERT – learning from errors and near misses' in our members webinar area.

Why report your incidents

Reporting incidents will help QRMG identify and address potential risks in Medicines Information (MI) / Medicines Advice (MA) services, improve our services as a network, and enhance patient safety. 

Bringing reports from multiple MI/MA services together allows us to spot patterns. Your reports are invaluable in helping the network learn from errors and near misses, ensuring we can take proactive steps to prevent future occurrences.

QRMG collects incident reports relating to the enquiry answering process and to MI publication processes. We also collect information on errors in non-MI publications to inform the network.

The UKMi incident reporting process does not replace your local organisation's processes for reporting errors and near misses.

How to report an incident

  1. Identify the incident: Any event or circumstance that could have or did lead to unintended or unexpected harm or potential harm to a person should be reported.
  2. Complete the relevant Incident Reporting Form: See Report an enquiry incident or Report a publication incident for assistance in completing the relevant MS form. Please provide as much detail as possible to help QRMG understand the content and impact of the incident. 
  3. Submit the form: Once completed, submit the form. You will get submission confirmation and can download a copy of your submitted form (some organisations may disable this functionality). The UKMi Incident Reporter will review the report and may contact you for further information if needed. They will anonymise and collate the incidents for review by QRMG. The incidents and recommendations by QRMG will be published quarterly.

Confidentiality

All submitted incident forms are treated in confidence. The information you provide will be used solely for the purpose of improving patient safety and service quality.

UKMi reports

Feedback and learning points from MI/MA incidents will be shared in several ways.

  • Quarterly Full UKMi Active Learning from Events and Risk Tracking (ALERT) report (Word)

Full report which details incidents for local learning. These can be accessed through Full ALERTs (members only access). QRMG will send a broadcast to registered members when a report is published. 

  • Quarterly Summary UKMi Active Learning from Events and Risk Tracking (ALERT) report (PDF)

Useful summaries to share with colleagues outside of MI/MA. These can be accessed through ALERT summaries

  • Incident Spotlights (PDF)

These are produced following identification of themes in reported incidents over time. The spotlights are useful to all staff handling questions about medicines. These can be accessed through Incident Spotlights.

If you have any questions or need assistance with the reporting process, please email [email protected].

Last Reviewed: July 2026