Pharmacist prescribed wrong dosage

[thisisthend]

Hi, I have epilepsy and my pharmacist gave me 200mg instead of my usual 500mg on my repeat prescription. I have been feeling really ill lately, like I'm going to have a seizure and didn't realise until I looked at my medication that I have been taking less than my normal dosage. Am I being unreasonable to complain? I think I should seek medical attention too.

@thisisthend I would be having a chat with the pharmacist about the lack of explanation about the medication you were dispensed. If you usually receive it in a particular dose ie 500mg and it was then dispensed I'm 200mg/300mg they should have gone through it with you. Are you now taking the correct dose? It's understandable you've been feeling 'odd' if you haven't been taking the correct level. Do you have access to an epilepsy nurse to talk to about this?

Write to your local rag and get them to take a pic of you with folded arms and a grumpy face. Perhaps a bit of pointing n that.

Second pharmacist bashing thread in as many days OP it’s hard to know what has happened here from the information you’ve given. There’s a lot of key information missing.
Your pharmacist can’t just give you different strengths of a medication unless that is what the prescription specifies so it also possible that this was a change made by your GP without discussing with you, or in consultation between your GP and pharmacist in which case we don’t know who would have been responsible for explaining this change to you.
Good practice would have been to discuss this with you and ensure you knew what you were doing especially for a critical medication for a condition such as epilepsy and it would be helpful feedback for the pharmacist for you to go back and discuss why this happened.
However it also sounds like you are slightly confused about what you’re meant to be taking anyway. If you are struggling with managing your medication you should go back and discuss this with either your pharmacist or your GP or both to see what support they can give you with this

Can people please stop bashing the OP for being confused and out of sorts? She’s clearly struggling to think straight, which isn’t surprising if she has been underdosing for a week. She’s quite unwell and needs some help.

OP, yes this should have been explained to you. “Take one or two” doesn’t sound clear enough when you need a specific dose and struggle to calculate your dose anyway.

I do agree that you should bring this to the pharmacist’s attention, because they need to know there has been a communication error. When things go wrong it’s helpful to point it out so it is less likely to happen again. I also recommend you talk to your doctor/nurse about what has happened to keep an eye on you as you go back to your ‘normal’ dose. Do you have friends or family who can help you?

I personally wouldn't complain, but if a waste of time in my opinion because the pharmacist will probably be thinking that checking your medication is a shared responsibility with health profession and patient.
I think you might have to chalk this up to experience and learn from it to personally read the box label before taking the pill.

Sorry for all the typos!

OP if your medication is not in a dosset box then sorry but its completely your own fault. Your an adult and you need to take responsibility for your own health.

Medical negligence claim here I come please go ahead and make an absolute show of yourself.

I see how the mistake happened as if your use to one tablet and the dose they gave you this time looked the same as before I can understand why you didn't question it so. Although technically you should have checked the pharmacy are also at fault for not telling you when you collected the prescription.

Regarding her responsibility in this it’s not her fault - She may be illiterate, dyslexic etc

She is posting on here just fine, though!

Your pharmacist can’t just give you different strengths of a medication unless that is what the prescription specifies

Yes they can. The doctor prescribes a drug but does not necessarily specify how it should be dispensed unless relevant to that particular drug. The pharmacist will dispence the medication so that the dose is according to the prescription.

In this case the prescription is for 500mg of the drug taken twice per day.
That does not necessarily mean that you will be dispensed 500mg tablets. The pharmacist may dispense 500mg tablets or 250mg tablets, or as in this case one 300mg and one 200mg. This often is due to supply issues and isn’t done deliberately to be difficult.

I agree that this is a communication issue and not medically negligent.

I would advice having a chat with your pharmacist to say that you felt it wasn’t clear enough that the strength of the tablets differed from your usual and could they please be more specific with any changes in future.

If you still aren’t feeling well please do seek medical advice as you’ve been under-dosed with your anti epileptics

Dear OP,

It seems that you really don't understand what you are meant to be taking and when, and in these circumstances, it would make sense to ask for a dosette box prescription, so that each amount of medication is in the dosette box in a labelled compartment for when it is to be taken. So all you do is pop open and take 'monday am' for example.

Speak to your pharmacy or GP and they will sort it, as they did for my parents.

The pharmacist hasn't prescribed the wrong dose as title says, the pharmacist hasn't prescribed anything, they have supplied the right dose but in a different form to what OP says she is used to.

You seem more bothered about making a negligence claim, than actually knowing what mg tablets you are on a day. You said in an earlier post, you were unsure whether it was 500mg or 1000mg od.

You need to make sure the dosage is correct and talk to your pharma/GP about ensuring this (if it is a mistake) never happens again. Perhaps then you could claim for negligence, but please sort your health out first. I hope you get it sorted, op.

Not everyone has mental capacity to check medical accuracy

It doesn't sound like you have it either, to be fair.

This isn't a prescription or dispensing error, the pharmacist has dispensed the correct dose, just in a different format. However the pharmacist should be making sure that you understand how to take your medication, especially if having to combine 2 different doses to make up your standard dose.

Flea bag I am a pharmacist and that is not correct I’m afraid. They can’t just give whatever strength to make up the dose on an NHS FP10 prescription.

It's pretty obvious that 200mg and 500mg tablets will likely look different and you were obviously meant to take a 200mg and a 300mg which equals 500mg!
So no they haven't dispensed singly, you need to read your medications.

*wrong not singly

I don’t think there has been a dispensing error here either. You do have a duty to read the label on the box.
Could you ask for your meds to be put in a dossete box for you or another type of monitored dose system.
I work with vulnerable adults and those who do have capacity to administer their own meds usually use these.

This is in no way medical negligence. You have been prescribed the correct medication. The error here is all your own.

If you don't know what dosage you are supposed to be taking each day then ASK.

If you can't be arsed to read the boxes the medication comes in then ASK.

If you don't understand how to take 1 tablet from each box to add up to 500mg (1 x 200mg + 1 x 300mg) then ASK.

If you genuinely can't work out your meds then you need to ASK your pharmacist if you have then made up into ready to take daily dose packs (a dossett box).

Don't go making a fool of yourself by launching into Daily Mail sad face compo mode. Be polite and ask for the help you clearly need.

Medical negligence claim here I come

Good luck with that.
The only person who has made a mistake is you OP.

THEY have the responsibility to ensure the correct dosage

And YOU have the responsibility to read the medication label before you take it to ensure it is the correct prescription.

As previously mentioned mistakes happen and no-one should take any medication and just assume it's what they think it is

OP, maybe it would be worthwhile getting your medication made up into a Venalink or Nomad system, that way you know the dosage is correct for that time of the day and the pharmacist can make it up for you for a week

Sorry but it’s hardly difficult mathematics.

You can just look at it as 2+3=5 if 200+300=500 confuses you.

You say that 2x200mg tablets are giving you a 200mg dose...that doesn’t make sense. You have been taking a 400mg dose.

Sorry but you have NO chance at succeeding with a medical negligence claim 😂😂😂😂 I am actually laughing at the thought. Medical negligence claims are very difficult, intricate and cost a lot of money - if you can’t do simple maths you have absolutely no chance at leaving medical negligence litigation with anything but debt! Also the UK doesn’t have compensation culture - you would only be awarded money based upon your actual loses (quantified with provable invoices etc) - therefore you aren’t even eligible for any compensation, especially as you had all the tools at your disposal to ensure you were taking the right dosage.

Also if the pharmacy in question didn’t have any boxes of the 500mg medicine, what then? They would have to order it in and wait for it to arrive, and in the meantime you’d either be without....or with a solution like a box of 200mg and 300mg for the time being.