Medical students are to be given more training and testing in prescribing so as to reduce doctors’ medication errors.

The British Pharmacological Society is developing an online prescribing simulator that will give medical students more opportunities to practise filling in drug charts. It is also working with the Medical Schools Council to develop a national prescribing assessment for medical students in their final year. An early version will be piloted this summer, and it is expected to be part of the final year’s assessment for medical students in 2012.

The society, in conjunction with the Medical Schools Council and the Department of Health, is also developing a national e-learning portal (www.cpt-prescribe.org.uk), which …