Bradford Coroner Roger Whittaker is right to urge changes in the way some pharmacies operate to ensure that medicine meant for one patient is not inadvertently given to another. Most pharmacies are very busy places, handling hundreds of prescriptions in a day. It is perhaps inevitable that very occasionally a misreading of an unclear label by a member of staff might lead to drugs or medicines being handed over to the wrong person.

Patients, and particularly elderly, unwell ones, cannot be relied on always to check that the pills and potions they receive really do have their name on. They tend to take things on trust. If the doctor gives them a prescription and the pharmacist hands over a bottle or packet, they usually don't think it necessary to check whether the name on the label is theirs.

Taking medicines intended for someone else can lead to tragedy - although in the case of Mrs Doreen Burgeon, whose inquest led to Mr Whittaker's call for better labelling safeguards, it was decided that this was not the cause of death. However, the Coroner clearly believes there are lessons to be learned from this case.

It seems a very common-sense measure for pharmacists to do as he suggests and highlight the patient's name, either in bold capital letters or in another colour, to make it stand out. That way hard-pressed pharmacy staff will surely be less likely to pick up the wrong packet and patients themselves might be prompted to glance at the label and notice if it isn't intended for them.