By Cat Way. Last Updated 3rd July 2024. Dispensing errors in healthcare can be potentially dangerous. Patients can suffer illnesses, delays to treatment, or permanent damage. In such cases, it’s possible to make a medical negligence claim.
When you visit your GP or a hospital, you have to put faith in their expertise. You have to trust that the treatment they provide will be beneficial and suitable. Also, you have to trust that the medication they prescribe is correct. Wrong medication negligence claims could be made if a medical professional provides you with the wrong medication, and that causes you to suffer. Therefore, in this guide, we’re going to look at when you could claim for being given the wrong amount of medication, the wrong medication dosage or the wrong type of medication.
Legal Expert specialises in helping with personal injury claims, including those for medical negligence or medical malpractice. Our advisors provide a no-obligation assessment of your claim and also provide free legal advice on your options.
To discuss your wrong medication claims right away, please call us on 0800 073 8804. If your claim is strong enough, you could be connected to one of our No Win No Fee solicitors.
If you’d rather find out more on how much compensation could be awarded for the wrong medication being given, please continue reading.
Select A Section
- Who Can Make A Dispensing Error Claim?
- Dispensing Errors By A GP
- Dispensing Errors In A Hospital
- Dispensing Errors By A Pharmacy or Pharmacist
- How To Prove A Medical Negligence Claim
- Potential Compensation For Dispensing Errors
- No Win No Fee Dispensing Error Claims
- Supporting Information
Who Can Make A Dispensing Error Claim?
To make a dispensing error claim, whether it be against a pharmacy, hospital, or GP, you need to be able to prove that medical negligence occurred.
For the purposes of a medical negligence claim, this means:
- You were owed a duty of care by a medical professional, like a pharmacist
- They breached this duty
- You suffered avoidable harm as a result
A duty of care is a legal responsibility that is placed on individuals or organisations to take proper care to avoid causing foreseeable harm. All medical professionals owe a duty of care to their patients, and to fulfil this duty, the care they provide needs to meet a certain standard.
Doctors, pharmacists, and GPs will all have different responsibilities that they need to carry out in order to fulfil this duty. You can read the General Medical Council’s information on professional standards to learn more.
Failure to meet this standard alone isn’t enough to make a claim. For example, if a pharmacy dispensing error caused you to receive a slightly lower dosage than usual, but this caused no harm, then you wouldn’t be able to make a claim.
But if this change in dosage caused harm, like vomiting, migraines, or stomach cramps, then you may be able to make a dispensing error compensation claim.
To find out if you are eligible to make a medical negligence claim, contact our team of friendly advisors today. They can offer more information on the claims process, and evaluate your case for free.
Dispensing Errors By A GP
GP’s have a small amount of time, usually around 10-minutes, to assess, diagnose and treat each patient. While many patients receive good levels of care, if mistakes happen, they could cause ill effects on a patient. Some scenarios in which a GP could be liable for your suffering include:
- If a doctor provides a prescription for medicine that you’re allergic to.
- Alternatively, if a doctor prescribes medication that’s not suitable for your illness, this could mean you suffer side effects. It could also mean that there’s a lack of treatment for your underlying condition, thus causing additional suffering.
- If the GP gives you medication that reacts to other medication you’re already taking.
Even if these mistakes are made due to time pressure, a claim could still be possible if you suffered somehow, and liability could be proven. Please call to discuss your options on wrong medication claims with one of our medical negligence experts.
Dispensing Errors In A Hospital
When visiting a hospital for any form of treatment, medication of some form might be required. This could include anaesthetic during surgery or antibiotics to clear up an infection. If medication is required, it must be the correct medicine for you. If there’s a mistake with a prescription, it could potentially be life-threatening.
Here are some ways in which hospital negligence could lead to prescription errors:
- When a nurse administers somebody else’s medication.
- If you’re given the wrong dosage of anaesthetic during surgery.
- When medication is administered intravenously instead of intramuscularly.
- If medication isn’t given at all because of inaccurate record keeping.
Again, when any type of negligence leads to your suffering because of a breach in the duty of care owed to you, you could claim compensation against the hospital by making wrong medication claims. Medical records can be used to help prove what happened. You could also ask any witnesses who saw what happened or heard what was discussed for their contact details if a statement is needed in the future.
Dispensing Errors By A Pharmacy Or Pharmacist
Even though a pharmacist doesn’t necessarily treat you for your ailments, they are still medical professionals. The dispensing of any drugs is an essential part of the treatment chain, and any mistakes could cause you to suffer. Therefore, it could be possible to claim against a pharmacist if their negligence causes any form of illness or avoidable suffering (wrong medication claims).
The types of negligence by a pharmacist that could lead to a claim include:
- Dispensing the wrong drug.
- Labelling errors where the bottle promises one drug but the contents are different.
- Dispensing the wrong dosage from what is on the prescription.
- Transcription errors where the doctor’s handwriting is hard to understand. This type of error is less likely with computer prescriptions.
- Poor advice from a pharmacist about over the counter medications.
It is possible to sue a pharmacy even if it was their staff who make a mistake. That’s because they have a duty of care towards you. Therefore, if a staff member dispenses incorrectly, the pharmacy could still be liable for any mistakes that cause you to suffer.
How To Prove A Medical Negligence Claim
Dispensing errors in pharmacies can have serious consequences for your health and well-being. However, in order to claim for harm caused by a pharmaceutical error, you must be able to prove that negligence occurred.
Some examples of evidence that could be used to help support pharmacy claims and claims for dispensing errors include:
- Prescriptions: If you have the original prescription and your prescription form, this can help prove that there was an error in dispensing your medication.
- Symptoms diary: Keeping a symptoms diary can be useful, as this can help track and illustrate how the error has harmed your health.
- Medical records: Your medical records may show what treatments you received and when, as well as if you are allergic to certain medications. It could also state any diagnosis you received after the dispensing error occurred.
If you choose to work with one of our expert solicitors on your case, they could help you with gathering this evidence to help build a strong claim.
To learn more about how to claim for a dispensing error or to see if you could be eligible to work with one of our solicitors, contact our team of advisors today.
Potential Compensation For A Dispensing Error
When you make a dispensing error claim, there are two potential kinds of compensation you could receive. The first is general damages.
This kind of compensation is awarded to every successful claimant, and it covers the pain and suffering you go through as a result of medical negligence.
The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) are often used to help value compensation under this heading. This is because the JCG provides guideline compensation brackets for a number of injuries and illnesses, with differing amounts for different severities.
You can take a look at some examples of these guidelines below, but please note that the first entry isn’t a JCG figure. As all claims are different, the table is only for guidance.
| Injuries | Compensation |
|---|---|
| Multiple Instances Of Serious Harm And Special Damages | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Very Severe Brain Damage (a) | £344,150 to £493,000 |
| Less Severe Brain Damage (d) | £18,700 to £52,550 |
| Total Blindness (b) | In the region of £327,940 |
| Epilepsy (a) | £124,470 to £183,190 |
| Epilepsy (b) | £66,920 to £160,360 |
| Toxicosis (a) (i) | £46,900 to £64,070 |
| Toxicosis (a) (iii) | £4,820 to £11,640 |
| Kidney Injuries (c) | £37,550 to £54,760 |
| Total Loss Of Taste And Smell (a) | In the region of £47,810 |
If you suffered financial losses because of the dispensing error, these can be covered under special damages. Not all claimants will receive compensation under this heading because not everyone will suffer financially.
Special damages can help cover the cost of:
- Lost earnings
- Childcare
- Private healthcare
- Prescriptions
- Mobility aids
- Home adjustments
- Travel
When claiming under this heading, you need to be able to prove your losses. This can be done with invoices, bills, receipts, and bank statements.
Whether you were harmed by a GP, hospital, or pharmacy dispensing error, our team are here to help. Get in touch today for more information on the potential compensation you could claim.
No Win No Fee Dispensing Error Claims
Some medication negligence claims can indeed be tricky to prove. Therefore, some claimants might worry about the cost of hiring a lawyer. However, there’s no need to worry if you use Legal Expert. That’s because our solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis for any claim they handle, including wrong medication claims.
They do so to allow as many people to claim as possible without worrying about the cost of doing so. No Win No Fee reduces the financial risk and stress when making claims.
When we assess your claim, you receive a conditional fee agreement to sign if the solicitor is happy to proceed. This is your contract. It has lots of information within it, including two key points:
- A statement that says you don’t have to pay your solicitor’s fees if you lose the claim.
- The level of success fee payable when you receive compensation.
Success fees pay for the solicitor’s time and effort in claiming a percentage of your compensation. Should the claim win, the solicitor simply deducts the success fee before you receive your compensation.
Start Your Wrong Medication Negligence Claim
We hope that you’ve found this guide helpful. Furthermore, we hope you’d now like to use Legal Expert to help you with your claim. If so, here’s how to contact us:
- Call our team of specialist advisors on 0800 073 8804 for free advice.
- Send us details of your claim in an email to info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Chat live online with our advisors whenever it’s convenient for you.
- Or finally, you can begin your claim online by completing this enquiry form.
When you reach out to us, our advisors will start by assessing your claim. They’ll review the evidence and provide free advice on your options. You’re under no obligation to proceed with any wrong medication claims at this point.
However, if they believe your claim is strong enough, they could connect you to one of our personal injury solicitors. They’ll offer a No Win No Fee service if they take your claim on. You can begin your claim at any time because our claim line is open 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.
Thank you for reading our guide on wrong medication claims.
