Incorrect medication - advice

[definatiz]

I'm changing some personal & illness details to protect identities - but my mother UK based (74) told me that she was incorrectly prescribed some very strong medication. I am mainland Europe based - a 2 hour flight away.

To give an ideal of the scenario - it is akin to someone who ends up taking strong meds for a condition such as Rabies or Malaria rarely seen in the UK, instead of meds for a serious ongoing but more common in the UK ailment (e.g thyroid ).

So - a) the side effects are serious & b) weeks have gone by without the proper meds.

took weeks to get it checked investigated.

I don't know what to think about this or what to do for the best - from 2 hours away from the UK. She wants no actions taken legally.
She is 100% competent mentally (no dementia etc) so unlikely to be a mis understanding.

Surely with multi doctors now involved & aware of this it gets automatically reported to at least prevent it happening again?

What action has she taken herself about this, OP? Did she speak to her doctor or pharmacist, did the GP prescribe the wrong meds instead of her usual ones? What actually happened?

Hi ChicCroissant

From what I was told - 2 doctors involved e.g specialist & gp. Specialist wanted drug XYZ given, but GP prescribed drug XBZ instead. Pharmacist only delivered drug prescribed, so it is not a pharmacy issue

Not sure why GP rather than specialist ended did the prescribing (I'm a bit hazy on that part as I was so stunned by the story I was hearing).

After weeks of severe symptoms - a she got second appointment back with the specialist who said...I never prescribed XBZ and I never would as it is for "Rabies" not for your condition. Plus the side effects of XBZ are known to be potentially severe (e.g .organ damage).

I don't think she has taken any further action other than obviously stop taking XBZ & push for tests about the side effects to see if any organ damage has occurred.

Maybe I am over reacting, but the more I think about this the madder I get.

It does happen and it is always worth checking every time you have been given the right medication. Who made the mistake, did the dr prescribe the wrong medication or was it a pharmacy error? Are the actual (not could have) consequences serious, what harm had she come to?

She should complain to her gp surgery or pharmacy depending on where the error occurred to allow them to investigate and take appropriate action to improve processes if possible.

If she doesn't want to take it further, it is up to her.

Will this is a potential problem with hospital consultants offloading their donkey work and odd jobs onto GP’s.

Ultimately, if she wants to complain (and it is her choice, you can’t complain on her behalf if she doesn’t want to) then she needs to speak to the practice manager to do so.

Perhaps the specialist should do their own prescribing rather than palming it if on to the GP.

Bottom line is that there will be an investigation as there is for any medication error. This is very likely to not be a single person error, but is more likely a system problem. If your mum wants to complain she can, but as above, you cannot complain on her behalf.

conflicts between consultant & gp wrt prescribing happens all the time.
especially if medicine is used 'off label' i.e. not officially licensed for the condition but possibly well used for it. or, sadly, because the medicine is too expensive.

you or your mum need to ask the gp to confirm they cannot/aren't allowed to prescribe and then get back to the consultant.