Prescription errors
Prescription errors can arise in a number of situations:
- a patient is prescribed the wrong medication
- medication is contraindicated due to a patient's condition (e.g. pregnancy, penicillin sensitivity) or another medication being taken
- prescription of incorrect dose
- incorrect dose given due to error by pharmacist or by administering clinician.
Errors can arise as a result of a prescribing doctor failing to fully consider a patient's medical history, failure to mark or note penicillin sensitivity on hospital records, confusion arising from medications having very similar names or confusing pharmaceutical companies' packaging material.
On other occasions doctors simply make errors of judgment by prescribing a dosage that exceeds that recommended by the manufacturer or justified by medical research.
Sometimes prescription errors are recognised promptly, but we have known one case where the error went undetected for six years.
The consequences of prescription errors range from a short term but nasty reaction through to long term injury and ultimately catastrophic injury and death.
We have dealt with cases involving the following errors:
- newborn baby given huge overdose of chloramphenicol to treat neonatal meningitis, resulting in catastrophic brain damage
- general practitioner prescribing wrong insulin leading to frequent incidents of diabetic coma
- pregnant lady prescribed analgesic leading to premature labour and birth
- lady prescribed incorrect contraceptive pessaries, which were in fact hormone replacement therapy, leading to prolonged heavy periods and depression.
For further information please contact one of the team. Alternatively please click here to complete a short enquiry form so we can assess your claim.