Comparison of critical care and general ward report by reason for medicine prescribing
| Reason for prescribing | No of medicines (%) | |
| Critical care | General ward (8) | |
| New medicine | 59.4% (342) | 18.7% |
| Medicine dose change | 18.6% (107) | 1.5% |
| Regular medication not prescribed | 16.8% (97) | 68.1% |
| Incorrectly prescribed medicines | 5.2% (30) | 7.5% |
Critical care pharmacist independent prescribers (PIPs) covered these units on 60.4% (58/96) of days during normal working hours (08:00 to 16:30). These data suggest that each PIP prescribed an average of 10 medicines/day, although this varied greatly according to individual practitioner and availability of multiple pharmacists (0–44 medicines/day).