Morrisons Pharmacy Wrong Medication Negligence Claims Guide

Morrisons pharmacy wrong medication negligence compensation claims guideIn this online guide, we are going to try and show you why you might be in a position to make a compensation claim, following a Morrisons Pharmacy prescription error. This is because a prescription error can be classed as medical negligence in some circumstances, and we aim to explain why in this guide.

Each compensation claim has its own unique circumstances, and because of this, you may have questions about your claim that this guide doesn’t provide an answer for. If so, we can still help you. All you have to do is call our claims team on 0800 073 8801. One of our expert advisors will answer all of your questions for you, and also explain how we can help you to proceed with your claim.

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A Guide To Claims For Prescription Errors By A Morrisons Pharmacy

If a pharmacy gives the wrong medication, this could be construed as clinical negligence in some cases. Just as you might make personal injury claims for negligent accidents that cause you harm, you could be able to make a clinical negligence claim for a pharmaceutical error for the harm you have suffered, depending on your eligibility to claim. This guide aims to show you how.

We start this guide off with a general overview of what prescription errors are, and more importantly, why you may be eligible to make a claim for one. In this first part of the guide, we will also cover the duty of care that pharmacists owe patients, and how simple mistakes can lead to errors being made. We go over the complaints procedure for reporting a pharmacist, and who could be liable if you become the victim of a pharmaceutical mistake. In the last sections of this part of the guide, we will look at how a pharmaceutical error could harm you, and also some mistakes that could happen at a pharmacy.

The next and final part of this guide is given over to some of the financial aspects of the claims process. We have added a table that you can use to get a rough idea of how much you could claim for illnesses caused by taking the wrong medication. We have also provided you with a list of damages you could be able to claim for. Lastly, we go over what a No Win, No Fee claim is, and how a solicitor working under this agreement could help you to get the compensation you are eligible for.

If you have questions about the contents of this guide, your claim, or the claims process in general, then please speak to one of our claim advisors on the number down near the end of this page. They will be able to provide you with any help, advice and information you need.

What Are Medication Errors By Pharmacies?

What to do if a pharmacy gives the wrong medication in the UK? You may be in a position to make a compensation claim for the harm you have suffered. Pharmaceutical mistakes may be caused by a variety of reasons, and if the root cause of the mistake was down to negligence, the pharmacy could be liable to pay you damages for the harm you have suffered. However, there are three things that will need to be true for your claim to be potentially viable, and these are:

  1. You must have suffered some form of harm due to the negligent mistake that was made by a pharmacy.
  2. You need to be able to prove that the pharmacy was responsible for the mistake happening.
  3. You need to show that the symptoms that you developed were directly or indirectly caused by pharmaceutical negligence and not some other medical condition.

If you can be sure that these three things are true in your own case, then you may have a valid basis to make a compensation claim. Whenever we state in this guide that you could be able to make a compensation claim, it is with the assumption that your own circumstances fulfil these three prerequisites for being able to make a claim.

You can check your eligibility to claim by having one of our expert claim advisors evaluate your claim for you. Give our team a call today to proceed.

Pharmacy’s Duty Of Care

Every medical professional in the UK has a duty of care towards patients to never do them any unnecessary harm. Either directly or indirectly. This includes pharmacists. And because the pharmacist is responsible for supervising all of the staff working in a pharmacy, even though they may not be medical professionals, the pharmacist could be liable for any mistakes the staff make.

A pharmacist is expected to treat every patient in a professional way, to specific safety standards and standards of service. When they don’t, and this results in harm to a patient, such as becoming ill after taking the wrong medication, then this could be construed as clinical negligence. In such cases, the injured party could be able to make a claim for the harm they have suffered, in much the same way that an accident victim can make a personal injury claim. If you would like to find out whether your pharmacist could be liable for a mistake they made when dispensing medication to you, please call our claims team who will be able to help you with this.

What Happens If Pharmacists Dispense The Wrong Medication?

In a later section, we will look at some of the mistakes that could occur at a pharmacy. This section will go over some of the circumstances that could lead to an error being made. Such as:

  • Lack of training and supervision of non-professional staff at a pharmacy.
  • Problems with the infrastructure of dispensing medicine, such as a computer error or a label printer going faulty.
  • Mistakes made by manufacturers and distributors that cause the wrong information to be printed on the package of medication or on the instructions inside the packaging.
  • Communication issues between the prescribing GP and the pharmacy.

If such a mistake were to cause you harm, then your lawyer can follow a similar procedure to the one a personal injury solicitor would follow to make a compensation claim.

How To Make A Complaint About Your Pharmacist

If your pharmacist gives you the wrong prescription, mixing it up with another person or if they give you the wrong medication or the wrong dose, you could be eligible to make a claim against the pharmacy for the harm you have suffered.

The National Health Service (NHS) deals with a high volume of complaints, and to help with this, a comprehensive complaints procedure has been put in place. You will have to follow this procedure within 12 months of the incident to make a complaint to the NHS.

If you need some help with making a complaint to the NHS prior to pursuing a claim, please speak to our claims team. One of our advisors can assist you.

Who Is At Fault For A Prescription Error By Your Pharmacy?

If a pharmacy error occurs and the victim decides to make a claim for the harm it caused them, they will need to prove that a medical professional was responsible in some way.

If the error was made by the pharmacist or any of the staff that are working in a pharmacy, then liability could lay with the pharmacy/pharmacist. The pharmacy/pharmacist are covered by the businesses public liability insurance and it is this insurance policy that will be leveraged to pay any damages awarded to the claimant.

If you need to find out whether a pharmacy is liable to pay you damages or not, please speak to our claims team. A claim advisor will go over your circumstances with you, and let you know.

How Could You Be Affected By The Wrong Medication?

If you were to take the wrong medication given by a pharmacy or take the wrong dose of the right medication due to a pharmacy mistake, this could have serious, even deadly consequences. For example:

  • You could suffer an allergic reaction to the medication, or even life-threatening anaphylaxis.
  • The medication might react badly with another kind of medication you are taking.
  • The original illness the medication was prescribed for will go untreated.
  • If you are given the wrong dose or the wrong information on how often to take the medication, you could suffer an overdose.

All of these are examples of harm a patient could come to due to a pharmaceutical mistake. If your health was negatively impacted in such a way, you could be eligible to make a claim. Speak to our claims team for more information about this.

Types Of Mistakes That Could Be Made By Pharmacists

In a prior section, we looked at some circumstances that mistakes being made by pharmacy staff could result in. In this section, we look at the actual mistakes that could occur. Such as:

  • Medication stacked on the wrong shelf, in the wrong place and then picked mistakenly.
  • Two or more prescriptions can be mixed up and given to the wrong patients.
  • The wrong dosage of the right medication could be dispensed.
  • The information printed on the packaging of the medication could be wrong, telling the patient to take it incorrectly.

These mistakes could result in a patient suffering a negative effect on their health. If you received the wrong medication, wrong instructions, or wrong dose from a pharmacy, call our claims team to find out if you are eligible today.

Calculator For Wrong Medication Claims Against A Pharmacy

In the past, you might have tried using a personal injury claims calculator to get a rough idea of how much you might be able to claim for a specific injury. We have not provided one of these tools for medical negligence claims. Instead, we have included the table below, that can help you to work out how much you may be able to claim for certain medical conditions. We created this table based on the published Judicial Guidelines that are followed by the legal system in England.

Edit
Illness Severity Notes Compensation
Bladder/Bowels a Illnesses and injuries that would cause full incontinence. Both urinary and bowel function will be severely impaired and there could be a number of other complications as well. Up to £172,860
Bowels b Illnesses or injuries that cause a complete loss of bowel function, that would mean that the victim is now reliant on a colostomy bag. Up to £140,870
Bowels c Illnesses and injuries that could cause some level of passive incontinence and faecal urgency, that would still persist even though surgery has been tried. In the region of £75,000
Bowels d Illnesses and injuries that cause some form of temporary problem that requires a colostomy bag for the short-term. There may also be scars, a restriction of diet, etc. £41,850 to £65,440
Bowels e Illnesses or injuries that result in short-term impairment, and some form of damage such as a deep penetrating wound, that will heal completely in time. £11,820 to £22,970

If you would like a much more accurate estimate of the level of compensation that you may be able to claim, based on your own unique circumstances, then please speak to one of our claim advisors. They can arrange for a solicitor to value your claim for you.

Costs Which You Could Claim Compensation For

If you are harmed due to being given wrong medication at a pharmacy if your claim is a success the settlement you receive will likely be made up of multiple damages.

General damages are paid to the victim to make up for all of the trauma, pain and suffering they have gone through or may continue to go through. The amount of compensation the claimant receives will depend on several factors, such as how much pain they suffered, how traumatic the treatment they received was, whether they will have any long-term disabilities, etc.

General damages could include:

  • General pain and suffering – due to becoming ill and also whilst receiving emergency treatment.
  • Shock and trauma – due to becoming ill and having to receive emergency treatment.
  • Psychological damage – such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, new phobias and depression.
  • Painful treatment – if there was a need for repeated, traumatic treatment and recovery took some time.
  • Permanent disabilities – if the illness will leave the claimant with some form of long-term or permanent impairment.
  • Loss of life quality – if the illness will leave the claimant with a reduced capacity to enjoy life.

Special damages are paid to the claimant to make up for financial and other non-physical losses. These could be expenses incurred or long-term negative effects on the claimant’s income. When claiming for expenses incurred, all expenses need to be proven, by presenting receipts, bills, invoices, etc.

Special damages could include:

  • Care costs – to cover the cost of having to hire a nurse to care for you at home, or to hire in help to maintain your home and handle chores.
  • Lost income – to compensate for lost wages/salary, either partially or in full, due to taking time away from work while you recovered from your illness.
  • Lowered employment prospects – if your ongoing income will be negatively affected because you can no longer work as effectively as before, or you have had to give up work entirely because of your illness.
  • Out of pocket expenses – such as travel costs for going for treatment or to deal with the claim itself, such as visiting your solicitor.
  • Private medical costs – only to compensate for private medical treatment that was a requirement, and that could not be on the National Health Service (NHS).

How We Could Help You To Claim Compensation

Our panel of solicitors have years of experience in helping people to make successful claims for clinical negligence. They will always do everything they can to ensure you have the best chance of winning your claim and getting compensation. Just as with a personal injury claim, which has a personal injury claims time limit that applies, a medical negligence claim also has an effective time limit. Our team of experts are on hand to provide you with all the information you need, including this time limit. They will use plain and simple English to make sure you understand all we are doing for you.

No Win No Fee Claims For Prescription Errors By Morrisons Pharmacy

When you choose to have a No Win, No Fee solicitor handle your claim for you, this can provide you with a way to get the legal help you need, whilst at the same time mitigating some of the financial risks of doing so.

If the claim fails and you get no compensation, the solicitor won’t expect to collect their fees. If the claim is a success, the solicitor will ask you to pay a success fee, which is legally capped in its amount.

This arrangement is also known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). It can be the perfect way for you to get the legal help you need right now. Speak to our claims team to learn more about how a No Win, No Fee claim works.

Contact Accident Claims UK To Start Your Case

Do you know what happens if a pharmacist makes a mistake? What the process is you need to follow to make a complaint or to make a compensation claim for the harm you suffered? We can help with the answers to these questions and more. All you have to do is contact our team today on 0800 073 8801. One of our claim advisors will go over your claim with you, answer any questions you might have, then offer you some free legal advice on how to proceed.

References

These external pages could be of help to you:

How To Raise Concerns About A Pharmacy

How To Reduce Prescription Errors

NHS Information On Anaphylaxis

These other guides could also be useful to read:

Article by MW

Edited by MM.