VACCINATION BLUNDER - be warned!

[poony]

My 6 month old daughter was mistakenly given a combined Hib and Men C jab instead of a single dose of Men C. I even confirmed with the nurse before she gave it! I couldn't believe it. I was totally shocked and horrified. Mothers, be warned. Check the box yourself... even if they get snotty with you interfering, it's your right. Check the box matches what's in your red book. Don't go by what they tell you or what you discuss. Supposedly my daughter is fine as she had the extra dose of Hib after her original 3 doses so was already immune and it's a non-live vaccine. Spoke to drug company and patient safety authority etc and all points towards her being ok. She has acted totally normally. BUT - I don't want to test the theory!!! I have lodged an offical complaint with the practice manager of the surgery and received a letter of apology. has this ahppened to anyone else? I have suggested that the new practice for nurses should be to show mothers the box just before they do the jab to avoid simple mistakes. Just like doctors do when they administer medication. We can't be too careful with our little ones and NHS staff can often seem all too hasty and thoughtless. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Pass it on.

That's awful - hope she is OK. At my practice the nurses always show you the box, get you to chech it and the use by date before giving any vaccination - I assumed this was standard proceedure?

I hope I'm not getting suck into a vaccine/no vaccine debate but...

I am a practice manager and I would strongly advise you to write/speak to the PM and ask her to let you know the outcome of their investigation in to this matter if they haven't already. It's good that they have apologised but that means nothing if they don't review their whole procedure with the whole nursing team.

This happened at my practice about a year ago although the error was slighty different. Everyone could see how and why the mistake had been made but we still carried out a full review and all nurses had input.

They should have a procedure called something like significant event reporting.

Most GPs only allow their Practice Nurses 10 mins per consultation, even on the 3rd visit which involves 3 seperate injections. That gives them 10 mins to deal with any anxieties the parent may have, check the child is well their identiy, vacination record, Vaccine shedule, obtain the parents consent, check you have got the right vaccine (vaccines packages are all very similar) actually give the injections, record the vaccines in the red book and on the computer and finally check the child has no adverse reactions. Obviously clinics overrun as it is very difficult to do this thoroughly in 10 mins, Practice Nurses often have to work 6 hrs without a break, I am surpised mistakes are not made more often.
I was a Practice Nurse for 20 years and as vaccines shedules got more complicated my appointment slots were cut from 20 mins to 15mins I rebelled when my GPs/Managers tried to cut it to 10 mins, but was unsuccessful. Ask at your practice how long the Nurse has per consultation, ask for a double appointment, write to the Practice Manager if you are not satified, until the public start complaining, nothing will be done.

Hackingandhewing, it sounds exemplary to send the patient/parent the review outcome. How much is this standard practice, please? Are you meant to do that with serious events? What constitutes a significant event?

For the one vax my dc was given (regretfully) the nurse did flash the box in front of me, but I was too busy with dc to really look at it. I have often thought I should have said: stop, let me look at that. Dc did have a reaction, and, like most people, I never got round to reporting it.