As the WHO's World Alliance for Patient Safety meets today in Dublin to work towards better case management through patient involvement, a leading patient advocate has urged health leaders to remember the threat from counterfeit medicines.

Patients for Patient Safety is a workshop being held to bring together patients, consumers and others interested in patient safety together, to discuss issues such as medical error and transparency of care.

But Simon Williams of Together4Health (T4H) said that while all aspects of patient safety were important, it was vital to stay focused on a wide-ranging problem facing tens of thousands of patients every day.

'We seem to be hearing continuous recalls of toys at the moment because of safety issues, and quite rightly so - but are we hearing enough about the large volumes of medicines that may well be counterfeit, from untraceable sources, with unreadable or totally absent patient information leaflets, or in formulations that could be a long way from what the doctor ordered?' he said.

T4H is holding a conference next month, also in Dublin, to launch the results of a pan-European survey it commissioned from PatientView - showing the huge concerns surrounding counterfeit medicines reported by patient organisations in several countries including the UK.

The WHO has its own International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) programme, but Simon said: 'The messages from the WHO taskforce just aren't reaching the patient groups despite the wide-ranging work that each of the partners is carrying out; I wonder if they are reaching patients.'

Together4Health works with patients, primary care trusts, the healthcare industry, employees and employers, bringing together knowledge and understanding across the board. It's a compact hub of shared learning and best practice in marketing, research and communication and brings together knowledge and skills from right across the healthcare sector - commercial and public. T4H has an unparalleled understanding of the needs of the end user.

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