• Bruce Warner, David Gerrett & Trina Cousins “David Cousins (1955–2023)”
  The Pharmaceutical Journal June 2023; 310 (7974). Read on…

(…) "He used his organisational skills to great effect. Those who knew him wouldagree, if you had 99 reasons for not doing something, David had 100 reasons why you should.
(....) In 2002, David moved to his ‘dream job’ in patient safety at the National Patient Safety Agency. His level of his commitment was demonstrated as he travelled from Derby to London for five years, five days a week, waking up at 5:00, riding his scooter down toDerby station, catching the 6:30 train to work and finally returning home at 19:00. However, long hours meant great achievement."

"David has been so thoroughly committed to righting the wrongs and making practices safer with medicines. He brought such knowledge and dedication to the work. He spoke truth to power (remembering meetings in the EMA) and was absolutely uncompromising in expressing what needed to change and how it could be better. The products he created are still gold standards for us. Countless people in the UK and worldwide have avoided serious harm from medicines because of David.
Being in the company of this thoroughly nice man was also a pleasure. We missed David in the latter years in this group and will continue to do so."

Ciara Kirke
Clinical Lead, Medication Safety Improvement Programme,
Quality Improvement Division, Health Service Executive,
Dublin, Ireland

Dr Torsten Hoppe-Tichy
Chief Pharmacist
University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany

"More than 25 years ago David took me as a young hospital chief pharmacist by his hand and brought me in contact with patient sagety and medicines safety. We did a study with his help, we published the results with his help and he was around. He visited the just „starting“ hospital pharmacy at Heidelberg University Hospital. He told us how to „sale“ the issue of medication errors. We went to the castle for a beautiful dinner. And he helped me with my first English presentation at my first EAHP congress in Amsterdam.
I can only say, he was fantastic. He never tried to stand in the first row even he was. He always gave us as collaborators room to build up an own scientific area in this field.
And he was always just there, when there was a question around medication error, even if we haven’t been in contact for years."

"He was an icon in medication safety and what he did to improve medication safety globally will never be forgotten. His effort improved medication safety all over the globe. Dr. Poff and I still remember the great time we had during the IMSN meeting in Hong Kong, we still remember the walk the three of us had beside the lake."

Hind Almodaimegh
Chair, Corporate Drug Evaluation Subcommittee, Cardiology Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia