Updated on 11th June 2024. Did you know that prescription error compensation could potentially be possible if you were given the wrong medication? A pharmacy or hospital owe their patients a duty of care. As part of this duty, they must provide you with a certain level of care. If medical negligence led to you being provided with the incorrect medication and this caused you harm, you could be eligible to pursue a claim for prescription errors compensation. This article explains how you could claim damages for a mistake like this.
Prescription errors compensation claims guide
This guide aims to provide the information that you need to start a claim. However, if you have any questions on prescription error compensation as you read the sections below, please don’t hesitate to get in touch:
- You can call us on 0800 073 8804
- Or email at Legal Expert
- Learn how a panel of personal injury specialists might assess your claim by using the ‘live support’ option to the bottom of this screen
Select A Section
- What Medication Errors Could You Claim For?
- What Are The Effects Of Prescription Errors?
- Limitation Periods For Prescription Errors Compensation Claims
- Am I Eligible To Make Prescription Errors Compensation Claim?
- Calculate How Much Your Prescription Errors Compensation Payout Could Be
- Get Help From Our No Win No Fee Claims Team
What Medication Errors Could You Claim For?
A medication error is when a pharmacy, GP, nurse or doctor fails to prescribe, dispense, administer, or monitor the right medication to a patient. Prescribing errors can involve:
- Over or under-prescribing a medication
- Prescribing the wrong dose
- Omitting to prescribe a medication
- Prescribing the wrong medication or at the wrong time
- Incorrectly diagnosing a medicinal need
- Using an unauthorised drug or branded version as a substitute
- Failing to check compatibility with other medications
- Storing medications incorrectly which renders them harmful
- Mixing prescriptions or imputing patient information incorrectly (administrative errors)
- A hospital or care home administering the wrong prescription medication to a resident
Doctors and hospital staff have a duty of care to perform their role with the same degree of competence expected of any other typical practitioner. Also, pharmacists are bound by the Medicines Act 1968.
Furthermore, healthcare providers report ‘patient safety incidents’ (PSI) if they accidentally (or deliberately) administer the wrong medicine and the patient becomes sick.
Not all medication errors will qualify a patient to claim medical negligence compensation. Call our claims team today for free legal advice and have your case assessed with no obligation.
What Are The Effects Of Prescription Errors?
The effects of prescription errors can range from no side effects at all to extreme and life-threatening depending on the patient. In addition to preventing the original health problem from being properly treated, wrong medication can create new health problems. Adverse drug reactions can include:
- Skin rashes and irritation
- Nausea and drowsiness
- Confusion and visual disturbances
- Mental health problems
- Vomiting and stomach pain/cramps
- Organ damage
- Anaphylactic shock or death
Symptoms such as this may take time to present themselves. In view of this, it’s important to raise any concerns about your medication as soon as you feel something is wrong.
How Many People Are Impacted By Medication Errors?
According to the British Medical Journal approximately 237 million medication errors are made in England every year. Researchers calculated that “avoidable” mistakes with medication costs the NHS over £98 million every year and over 1700 lives. Other statistics state that:
- 54% of errors happen at the point of administration
- 1 in 5 (21%) were at the point of prescribing
- Dispensing errors account for 16%
- Error rates are highest in care homes (42%)
- 3 out of 4 medication errors (72%) are minor
- 1 in 4 (just under 26%) have the potential to cause moderate harm
- In addition to this, 2% could result in serious harm
Source : https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/237-million-medication-errors-made-every-year-in-england/
Limitation Periods For Prescription Errors Compensation Claims
There is a three-year compensation time limit for making a medical negligence claim. This starts from the date of your injury or the date of awareness that medical negligence caused you harm and applies to NHS or private healthcare givers.
These periods vary for children or those who lack the capacity to represent themselves. In cases such as this, you can claim on their behalf as a litigation friend.
Am I Eligible To Make Prescription Errors Compensation Claim?
If a pharmacist, GP, nurse or doctor incorrectly prescribed or administered the wrong medication because they did not adhere to professional standards, it is possible to seek damages for any harm caused. How can prescription errors occur:
- Not listening to the patient therefore misdiagnosing the symptoms
- Not checking that the medication prescribed does not affect other medication
- Issued an adult dose to a child
- Failed to properly consult patient notes which led to an allergic reaction
- Told to take too much which caused an overdose
With this in mind, it’s necessary at the start to be clear who could be responsible for the prescription error (pharmacy staff or GP, for example). Then you can look at how the duty of care owed to you may have been breached and how it may have prompted your injuries. Call our team to have your claim for prescription errors compensation evaluated for free.
Calculate How Much Your Prescription Errors Compensation Payout Could Be
When making a claim you may want to know how much compensation for wrong medication you could be awarded. If you make a successful medical negligence claim, the settlement for the wrong prescription will be made up of two types of damages. General damages is the first head of loss that will be provided and is always awarded in a claim that is successful. This compensates for the pain, suffering and loss in quality of life caused by the negligence. Secondly, there is special damages, and this compensates for the financial impact again of the negligence.
For the general damages head of your prescription error claim, legal professionals such as medical negligence solicitors will use your medical evidence, any independent medical reports and publications such as the Judicial College Guidelines JCG to value this area of the claim. The JCG is a document that consists of a number of injuries and illnesses, all at varying levels, accompanied by compensation bracket guidelines.
The table below shows extracts from the JCG. The first entry does not appear in the JCG but has been provided to illustrate a figure for multiple serious harm and the financial losses that could occur as a result.
| Harm | How Severe | Guideline Award Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple instances of serious avoidable harm plus financial impact such as lost earnings and care costs. | Very Severe | Up to 500,000+ |
| Injury Resulting from Brain Damage | Moderately Severe | £267,340 - £344,150 |
| Moderate (i) | £183,190 - £267,340 | |
| Bowels | Faecal urgency and passive incontinence persisting after surgery. | In the region of £97,530 |
| Bladder | Serious impairment of control. | £78,080 - £97,540 |
| Kidney | Significant risk of future urinary tract infection. | Up to £78,080 |
| Loss of one kidney with no damage to the other. | £37,550 - £54,760 | |
| Digestive System - Non-traumatic Injury | Severe toxicosis | £46,900 - £64,070 |
| Serious but short-lived | £11,640 - £23,430 |
Each case varies when calculating clinical negligence claims, therefore please note these amounts represent guidelines only.
Special Damages For Prescription Error Compensation Claims
As we mentioned earlier, you could also claim compensation for your special damages. These are financial losses that have occurred due to the medical negligence. For instance:
- A loss of earnings if you need to take time away from work to recover.
- Care fees, if an at-home carer is needed to help you at home.
- Prescription costs, if you need to take additional medication
Please note that you can only claim compensation for the avoidable harm caused, not for any impacts of your original illness or injury.
It’s necessary to provide evidence of these monetary losses, such as payslips or receipts. A clinical negligence solicitor can also help you calculate future or predicted costs that could arise from the repercussions of a prescription error. So why not call our team to see what you could include as part of your prescription errors compensation claim?
Get Help From Our No Win No Fee Claims Team
In conclusion, at Legal Expert, we offer a service whereby you can connect with immediate expert help. Your claim could begin in minutes with one simple phone call in which you could be connected to a No Win No Fee medical negligence solicitor.
When a medical negligence solicitor works under a No Win No Fee agreement, there is no requirement to pay upfront fees. Successful cases need a maximum fee of 25%. Furthermore, should the case not win, there are no fees to pay to your solicitors at all.
Learn more by getting in touch with us on the contact details below. Find out how a No Win No Fee solicitor could help your medical negligence claim.
- Call us on 0800 073 8804
- legalexpert.co.uk/claim-online
- Use the ‘live support’ option to the bottom right of this screen
Quick Medical Negligence Links
Thank you for reading this guide. Below are further resources that can assist your prescription errors compensation claim:
- More information about GP error prescription compensation payouts
- Wrong medication claims against a pharmacy
- Or details about compensation for negligent treatment in a hospital
- Read more about patient safety alerts and reporting a medication mistake from the NHS
- Details on how medication errors should be reported to the Care Quality Commission
- Find out if you could sue a hospital for a hospital-acquired infection with our helpful guide.
