The United Kingdom is introducing practical measures to reduce the risk of errors with oral methotrexate, in response to deaths and serious events in patients taking the drug incorrectly.

The National Patient Safety Agency, an organisation that monitors adverse events occurring in NHS funded care and makes recommendations to reduce risk, identified reports of 25 deaths and 26 cases of serious harm associated with the use of oral methotrexate in patients living in the community in England over the past decade.

A range of factors had contributed to these adverse events, including patients not …