that I've been given the wrong instructions on a prescription - 5 times too much for a 1 year old

[felicity10]

Has this happened to anyone else?

I've just spoken to the customer line of a well known high street pharmacy and they said " oh yes, just a typing error!" My DD was prescribed some antibiotics and she should have one spoon 3 times a day but the bottle says FIVE spoons 3 times a day.

I am going to complain in the store later but cannot believe how careless they have been. Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice on what I should say, I am not sure what the result would have been had I not checked.

She is only 1!

That is appalling! Your daughter is very lucky that you checked.

You should make a formal complain, not in a compensation-kind of way, but in a don't-bloody-do-that-again-kind-of-way.

I agree with atswintwolengths.

Eeek.

They should be thanking their lucky starts it wasnt some other type of medication such as pain relief.

*Stars

I agree - they need to make sure that it NEVER happens again. The next parent might not be as savvy as you. I would be livid.

That's bad. My sister is a pharmacist and she is disgusted with this, I just called her. It should have been checked twice. Complain to the supervising pharmacist and then the store manager.

My DH had a misdosage once, caused by a GP not getting the simplest of chemistry right (that potassium chloride has a different molecular weight to potassium). The pharmacist didn't pick up on it being way different to the previous prescription. Lucky DH is a PhD chemist, huh?

Anyway OP, definitely complain. There should be checks against 'typing errors' - that's a completely unacceptable excuse.

I just don't think they could have checked it at all, it seems such an obvious error - I can't think of anything which adult or child you take five 5ml spoons of.

I am so angry, just think that one day they'll do this and it will be given to someone who has even less of clue than I, or doesn't like to question things.

Definitely complain in writing and maybe report to the regulatory authorities (must be some?! MHRA?). They obviously didn't thoroughly check it and their response afterwards just confirms their blase attitude.

My Dad was given (and didn't realise) the wrong dose of heart medication - could've killed him and did cause problems (which is why it was noticed eventually). Pharmacist is a highly responsible job and checks are in place to ensure 'typing errors' don't happen for a reason.

It happens occasionally, but you should definately complain.

At school my friend was double dosed with some kind of AD and hallucinated fairies through a week of GCSE exams before anyone noticed...

In a way at least it was a lot more than it was supposed to be and noticeble.

Definitely complain, all medication should be checked by the dispenser and then again before being handed over. Ask whose initials are on the label, and ask that someone senior talks to them urgently about the mistake.

Make sure you speak to the pharmacist - when it comes down to it, it is their responsibility (though might also be worth checking what GP put on the prescription! - they will still have it).

My daughter was once given out of date antibiotics

Grimma, that's scary.

Please complain - that is a dreadful error.

I'd also be asking them to explain to you what the consequences would be for your DD if you had followed their instructions!

Did they get mixed up between 5mls and 5 spoons?? Dreadful mistake to make

They wrote "FIVE 5ml spoonfuls" so basically wrote FIVE instead of ONE - I would have thought they would check that bit!

Typing 5x5ml could possibly be a typo (though should have been caught). Typing 'FIVE' is not a typo. Not even cod could try to type 'ONE' and come out with 'FIVE'.

I spoke to them today, they've gone off to investigate it and will come back to me. Lots of apologising etc. but what I really want them to do is make sure it doesn't happen again - to anyone especially some elderly lady or sleep deprived new mum.

Will let you know what they say.

Blimey thats shocking. Yes please keep us updated.

My mum was given the wrong persons perscription 3times.She told the lady the third time"do I look like a man" and went on about how dangerous her actions were.What's wrong with these people.

My son was given the wrong dosage for his heart medication when he was a tiny baby - 10x what it should have been. I only noticed because it was all still so new to me that I was reading the labels like a hawk terrified that I would do something wrong, but I always read them now. I did complain, nothing really came of it, but it made me so so angry.

So no, YANBU.

Gosh that's terrible. Definitely complain - imagine if it had been something like paracetamol.

You could ask them what action they plan to take to stop this happening again. One would hope they have some type of "incident form" - forms one can fill in to raise the fact that an error has happened regardless of whether there has been an adverse consequence of that error, processes leading up to the error should then be examined to try to prevent it happening again.

Defo complain! Could have been alot worse had u not noticed!!

Hope ur DD feels better soon!

Used to work in a pharmacy and this is bad. Everything is normally checked twice. Unfortunately mistakes do happen but the pharmacists reaction when you complained was terrible!
If you really want to complain you should complain to their head office and take it from there.