Have You Ever Encountered This Problem?

[daisya]

Has anyone else had incidences where pharmacies have got the prescription wrong? I just wondered how often this sort of thing occurred and when you consider how dangerous (even fatal for the patient) it can be, why isn't there a fail-safe in place to try to eliminate such mistakes - though I realise we are all prone to errors.

Two different pharmacies have in the last month made mistakes in medication for a family member. The first was giving the wrong insulin but was well spotted by the patient due to slight difference in colour of the box. Yesterday another incident occurred, a different pharmacy where the doctor when issuing the script made it very clear that the dose was one table three times a week. It was a good job he repeated that a couple of times because when the tablets were dispensed they had written "one tablet three times daily over a week" on the label!

I can't imagine what would have happened in both cases had it been someone who didn't realise the mistakes, especially the wrong dosage one where if they forgot what the doctor said or didn't hear correctly, they may well have taken the medication as written on the label!

[pusskin]

Our chemist always ask for a full address, to avoid any mistakes when giving out medication.

[Sqad]

I think that considering the hundreds of thousand prescriptions that are dispensed daily,then the sort of mistakes that you highlighted are rare.

But they shouldn't happen.

[daisya]

So do ours pusskin but it doesn't stop wrong instructions being put on the label or wrong item being dispensed unfortunately. After checking the wrongly labelled item the pharmacist said the prescription was correct but they had put the wrong instructions on the label.

I know what you mean sqad and agree, it's just the consequences often don't bear thinking about when it does happen - I guess some of us take things for granted and expect such matters to be correct when it's something like this.

[giveup]

Funnily enough a friend told me this morning that her husband has just had a knee replacement and was in hospital when a nurse came and attempted to put a drip into his arm (he was waiting to be discharged at the time). Luckily my friend was a ward sister and stopped her just as she started to put the thing in. Then the nurse finally asked his name and said O no,its not you. No apology. If my friend had not been there I wonder what would have happened.Its frightening.

[cupid04]

Yes this has happened to me, but I didn't notice until I got home from the hospital. I phoned up to complain and the cheeky gits only wanted me to go back up the hospital so they could rectify it. I live out in the sticks and this wasn't an option. so in the end they sent me the right pills by taxi.
The taxi driver told me this was a regular occurrence. Frightening, isn't it?

[daisya]

Yes it is frightening when it could be a matter of life and death. I remember being wrongly identified for an operation in hospital because they didn't check the names properly. Good job I was alert enough to say I didn't come in for an hysterectomy because that's what they wanted to do!!

A friend of mine some years ago was given the wrong dose of medicine by her doctor and it made her very ill, good job she realised it was the tablets and didn't take the rest of the course.

[Eve]

I've been given the wrong dose of medication by a doctor (clicked the wrong button apparently!), he gave me 5 x the dose I should have been on which only came to light when I went back to see another GP due to the side effects. I had a Dr give me a prescription for some antibiotics the other week which I had to tell her I could not take for a number of reasons (just as well I'm big on reading up about my conditions and medications else who knows!).

I've also been handed the wrong prescription a few times. Randomly there are two people are my surgery with "my" name, albeit a slightly different spelling. It's not that usual a (real) name.

I've had a prescription randomly delivered before from a pharmacy I've never been to and left with my neighbours so I'm guessing she has had some of mine too.

We've been called in to the wrong Dr before now and that only came to light when an age issue came up - she said no problem with me being under 30, I pointed out I was 34, she said the screen said I was 24.....

I'm guessing something else might have happened recently as they all seem to be double-checking which one I am lately.

Someone I know was given some kind of sedative instead of some completely different drugs she was meant to have. She was phoned and asked to come back...while she was driving on the way to pick up young children!!!

[mayennaise]

I've had the correct meds but wrongly dispensed. Double the dose it should have been and I only noticed when I took the tablet cause it was larger than usual - rang the pharmacy and they said - not to worry it won't do you any harm! - no apology either - needless to say I use a different pharmacy now!