Better communication with patients will be key to successfully decriminalising dispensing errors, a group of pharmacists and patients has said.

A partners' forum, created to support the work of the programme board in charge of reviewing medicines law, said it was also important for pharmacists to share any learning when a dispensing error had been reported, in its first meeting on Tuesday (October 1).

The group, made up of selected independent pharmacists, pharmacy bodies, multiples and representatives from patient groups, had been supportive of decriminalisation and recognised that it was a priority, the Department of Health (DH) said.

It also asked for clarification on how patients would be notified when a dispensing error was made, the DH said.

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	Programme board chair Ken Jarrold said he was pleased that the forum was "broadly supportive" of the board's approach to tackling decriminalisation. The forum's members were "strongly committed" to improving the quality of pharmacy services and were confident that the move away from criminal sanctions was an "important first step", he said.

"Delivering this change will not be down to government and regulators alone. A concerted effort by everyone involved in pharmacy, working together, will be needed to embed the necessary culture change," he added.

The forum also called for the decriminalisation of dispensing errors in hospitals, the DH said.

The outcome of the forum meeting would be reported to the programme board in its next meeting on October 29, the DH added. The forum will meet again in early December.

The programme board was set up in January to "rebalance" medicines legislation and pharmacy regulation. Under section 64 of the Medicines Act, it is a criminal offence for a pharmacist or technician to dispense the wrong product, even in error.

In May, Mr Jarrold told C+D that the board had made dispensing errors a fast-track issue and hoped to pass secondary legislation to decriminalise them under section 60 of the Health Act by the end of 2014. However, there was no guarantee that this would be successful, the board heard in its June meeting.