Can I claim against a pharmacy giving me the wrong medication?

[BonkeyMollocks]

A few weeks ago I went to the doctors to get a repeat prescription of my contraceptive pill. She said it was fine and prescribed me a pill.
I picked it up and when I got home I realised it was different from my usual one. i thought maybe she had changed it for some reason, so I took it, thought nothing of it. I trust what they had given me was what the doctor prescribed.

A few days in, I became very down, angry, short tempered, unable to sleep well compleatly not myself. I have been like this for a few weeks. I went back to a Nurse today and said I thought it was the pill making me like this and if she could explain why it was changed. There is no record of the pill being prescribed to me. Turns out the mistake was made by the pharmacy. The Doctor wrote on my records "Patient is happy with current pill, repeat prescription given"

She gave me a quick check, turns out my blood pressure is high (it runs in my family but is fine normally) she said more than likely a side effect. As were the mood swings and depression type feelings.

I have had a few pills over the years and it turns out I have tried this one before and did not get on well due to the reasons stated above.

I am very annoyed that because of one tiny mistake, I have been feeling like this for weeks. I have to go back to the Doctors in a few weeks to have my blood pressure re-taken. Its been a huge inconvenience.

The Nurse said she will be getting someone to phone the pharmacy in question and make sure they are aware of the issue. She told me to pick my new prescription up from there tomorrow and lodge a complaint.

Can I make a legal claim? It sounds so silly a friend mentioned it to me and it got me thinking. I just don't know if its worth the hassle iyswim. If so what do I do?

Apart from a horrendous few weeks, I'm not that worse off, but I am worried because it could have been alot worse!

Sorry, its longer than I thought it would be. TIA

So pushit and Chub where do I find one of these PI lawyers who will do a no win no fee claim thingy?

Agree with chubfuddler. As we both said (being, it appears, the only two people posting who actually have any experience of personal injury law...) - potentially a legal claim, yes, but unlikely to be worth the hassle.

Make a very very strongly worded complaint asking for details of what re-training the pharmacist is going to have. There must be a regulating body you can contact.

I would look on the APIL (association of personal injury lawyers) website for a local accredited practitioner who will give you a free initial appointment to discuss the case in detail.

landof um every-bloody-where!!!!!!

Have you actually been to see a solicitor?

Although your MAJOR problem now is going to be more than 3 years have passed and therefore you are unlikely to be able to claim. Can't be 100% sure as there are ways it can be extended so worth having a chat with a solicitor in any case.

The only thing I will be doing is lodging a complaint in writing and person to the pharmacy. The GP surgery know and will be following it up.

I asked for advice, not once did I say I would be doing anything.

I am leaving now because I can say no more. Thank you to the people that were helpful!

(Addresses other legal bod directly - i reckon she could argue no prejudice by delay quite convincingly though)

I saw one ages ago pushit who told me I would need to pay about £3k for an insurance policy to cover the fees of the surgeons who would need to testify that the operation had infact been botched!

sorry OP that wasn't at you.

Been 6 years though - if not already raised it AT ALL with hospital then maybe some probs. Possibly though!!! Go see a sol landof

Sorry to thread hijack, although OP gone now I think!!! Hope it was of some use OP :)

You would seriously deny a child life-saving drugs for leukemia or another fatal illness for an honest mistake that made you feel a bit crap for a short time?

Really????

The op has asked for advice, if she should and now she is denying dying children medication, fgs.

What the pharmacy did was unacceptable and this shoudl be followed up by the correct authorities. Thankfully the damage done has been short term, the pharmacy may have made other mistakes that may cost lives.

bonkeymollocks have you mentioned it to the pharmacy in question? It would be sensible to do so as your GP surgery may forget. All pharmacies have to have a complaints procedure in place, as well as procedures to deal with dispensing errors and near misses (a dispensing error that is picked up before it gets to the patient).

As a pharmacist, I can tell you that unfortunately mistakes do happen. Nobody is infallible. Pharmacists and their staff are very good at what they do, but occasionally will slip up. If you bring it to their attention, they will log it, investigate it, and let you know the results of their investigation. If there was something about the circumstances in the pharmacy that day that led to the mistake, it will be identified and addressed. This is part of what they have to do as part of their clinical governance obligation as they hold an NHS contract.

I can also tell you that anyone involved in the mistake will be devastated. As I said, nobody is perfect, but finding out that someone may have been poorly as a result of a dispensing error you were involved in is always really upsetting and makes you look closely at your own processes to try and improve your practice. We care hugely about patient safety and that's why we do the job in the first place.

If you do want to take the complaint further, you can escalate it to the head office of the pharmacy (if it is part of a chain), report the incident to the primary care organisation (I am assuming you are in the UK), or even report it to the General Pharmaceutical Council, which regulates pharmacies, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Making a claim is a different matter altogether, and I think you have to escalated it before you can pursue that. As others have said, you would need to prove that the dispensing error had casued your ill health, which could be difficult.

I hope this helps and I sincerely hope you feel better soon.

landof maybe better if a solicitor addressed that point as I don't have conduct of litigation at that stage (chub will know what I mean!).

Thankyou BigBadBear

I will be speaking to the Pharmacy tomorrow.

Insurance policies can be expensive. You'd get it back if you won though. There are some policies which don't have to be paid up front. Discuss it with a solicitor.

Thank you ladies, I've looked up a PI solicitor in my area and shall have a chat.

Sorry to hijack OP.

You recognised that the pill you were given by the pharmacy wasn't the same as your usual one. Is your GP in the habit of randomly changing your medication without discussing it first? If so I would be reporting him/her to the GMC.

The fact is the pharmacy issued the wrong pill, you noticed it, you knew you hadn't discussed a change with your GP but chose not to contact the GP and query it.

I'm sure a med neg lawyer would advise you but I'd estimate a fair amount of contributory negligence on your part so that would significantly reduce any financial award you might get.

Still here

No probs landof I hope you manage to get something sorted! :)

BigBadBear a sensible and informed response, thanks for that!

landofsoap that is truly awful. Unfortunately, I think you will find you have left it too late and you are statute barred unless a PI expert can come up with a valid reason to explain your delay.

Op you are a loon.

Whether a claim is statute barred depends on lots of things, including the point at which the claimant is aware their injuries arose from negligence and when (if different) they could reasonably have known that if they had thought about it. In a car accident the critical date from which the click starts ticking is usually the day of the crash but in a clinical negligence case it is not usually so obvious. Also whether any prejudice had arisen to the defendant by the delay is an issue which can give life to a claim otherwise statute barred. It's not as simple as saying "it happened more than three years ago, you're statute barred".

I didn't say it happened more than 3 years ago so you're statute barred. she said it happened 6 years ago and one would imagine that it didn't take 3 years for her to realise that her injuries were serious and were as a result of the surgery. Of course, none of us knows the full information and none of us, not even the best lawyer/barrister on here knows whether she has a successful claim. Only the Judge will decide that if she issues a claim. I merely said, she might find she has left it too late subject to other information being available and a way being found around the normal 3 year limit.

Think yourself lucky. I know a pharmacist who once accidently stuck a label with the instructions "take orally three times in sugar water" on a pack of suppositories.