If you’ve been given the wrong prescription by your doctor or pharmacist, the best thing to do is speak to them immediately about it.
You can call them on the phone, but if this isn’t possible then go into the pharmacy in person and politely explain what has happened. If you’re able to take your prescription bottle with you, that may help and show them what you should have been given.
The pharmacist will first confirm the details of your prescription with the doctor and then contact them if they need to speak to them about any changes that need to be made.
Depending on which mistake has happened, the pharmacist may be able to correct it by clarifying which medicine or dose you should be taking.
If they can’t do this, or if the doctor wants to make a change to your prescription (such as switching you to another medicine), then it’s up to your doctor to call in the new prescription and arrange for it to be delivered at your local pharmacy.
Your pharmacist will also let other doctors know about the mistake so they don’t make a similar one with future prescriptions.
Your doctor will try to contact you directly if they need to change the medication you’re taking. If it’s an urgent change, they may phone you or send you an urgent message through their online services. If this happens, then usually the pharmacist will write your new prescription and send it to you or your doctor. Remember that you can always call your doctor’s surgery if you have any questions about what has happened.
Prescription Injury
If you’re injured by a mistake like this and if someone else was to blame (for example, the pharmacist), then you may be able to make a personal injury claim.
An example would be if the pharmacist gave you the wrong medicine because they misread your prescription or didn’t take enough care when making up your medication.
However, it’s important to know that while mistakes like this do happen, they’re not always someone’s fault. For example, if a patient is blind or partially sighted, their doctor may provide them with a photograph or print out of their prescription. This makes it easier for them to read the instructions on their prescription bottle, but if they lose it then another person may not be able to make any sense of the text.
That’s why, in this case, you wouldn’t be able to take legal action against your doctor or pharmacist because this would be classed as an unforeseen circumstance.
Different Types of Prescription Error
There are three main types of prescription error: wrong patient, wrong medication or wrong dose.
A pharmacy might give the wrong prescription to a patient if they have two similar sounding names or if there’s been a mix-up with the labels on their medicine bottles.
The pharmacist might also give the wrong medicine to a patient because they’ve made a mistake when reading their prescription or they might not have taken enough care when making up the medication.
This should only happen if the pharmacist doesn’t follow your doctor’s instructions to the letter, though it can sometimes mean that you’re given less than what
If it was a big mistake, then contacting an attorney may save you some money in the long run, and help reverse side effects of taking the wrong prescription.