Asda Pharmacy Wrong Medication Negligence Claims Guide – How To Claim Compensation For A Prescription Error?

As one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK, Asda also offers pharmacy services. Like all pharmacies, they have a duty to provide a safe service to customers, but what happens if a customer suffers an Asda Pharmacy prescription error that causes harm?

Asda pharmacy wrong medication negligence compensation claims guide

If you or someone you know have suffered harm because of pharmacy negligence at Asda, this guide could offer you some useful information.

Within the sections below is information concerning pharmacy prescription mistakes, including how they could happen, how you could go about reporting pharmacy mistakes, and how much compensation you could look to receive for this type of claim. If you’d like further support and advice, you could call us at any time on 0800 073 8801. However, we would encourage you to read the information we have provided below, as you might find the answer to your questions within the content.

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A Guide To Prescription Error Claims Against Asda Pharmacy

Have you suffered harm because of an Asda Pharmacy prescription error? Did you suffer an overdose of medication because you were given too high a dose, or were you given someone else’s prescription? Whatever type of dispensing error you’ve suffered harm from, if it was due to pharmacy negligence, you could claim compensation for your pain and suffering in addition to costs and losses you’ve experienced because of the error.

Included in the sections below is guidance on making a claim for an Asda Pharmacy prescription mistake. You will find information on what constitutes pharmacy negligence, how you could end up with the wrong medication and how it could cause you to suffer harm. Also included is guidance on compensation you could claim for injuries caused by pharmacy wrong medication incidents, and information on how Accident Claims UK could help with your claim.

What Is A Medication Prescription Error?

If a doctor prescribed the wrong dosage of your medication and you suffered harm because of it, they could be held accountable for the suffering you’d experienced because of the prescription error.

However – and this is what we focus on in this guide – if the wrong medication was given to you because of errors in pharmacy, such as the pharmacist mixing up your prescription with someone else’s, or dispensing the wrong dosage or instructions as to how to take your medication, you could hold the pharmacy accountable for the pharmacy error that caused you harm.

Pharmacists Duty Of Care To Customers

Pharmacists have a certain duty of care towards those people who use their services. Their services should meet certain standards, as explained in the General Pharmaceutical Council’s Standards for Pharmacy Professionals. There are 9 standards in total, and these are:

  • To behave professionally
  • To speak out where they may have concerns
  • To respect the privacy/confidentiality of patients
  • To use, maintain and develop their professional skills
  • To ensure they communicate in an effective manner
  • To provide care that is centred around the patient
  • To work with others in partnerships
  • To use their professional judgement
  • To be able to demonstrate their leadership

When it comes to the duty of care that a pharmacy service provider has towards its customers, this could include putting in place robust procedures for the safe supply, distribution, storage, administration and dispensation of medicines, but also ensuring they hire competent experienced professionals for their pharmacies.

The responsibilities of the pharmacists working within the pharmacy would be to ensure that safety protocols are followed and that risks are spotted and highlighted so that control measures could be put in place to avoid such risks.

If there is a failure by the pharmacist or the pharmacy services provider to provide services that are safe and effective, this could, essentially be classed as pharmacy negligence, and could lead to them being held liable for wrong medication incidents that have caused harm to patients.

What Could Happen If A Pharmacy Makes An Error?

If a pharmacy makes an error, this could result in severe harm being caused to a patient. There should, therefore, be measures in place to prevent errors being made in pharmaceutical patient care. These could include labelling procedures, barcodes that are scanned into computer systems, physical checking protocols, and control measures for storage, quality and distribution.

If these safety measures were to fail in some way, and a patient was given the wrong medication in an Asda Pharmacy prescription error, what could happen would largely depend on whether the patient had taken any of the wrong medication.

If the person had not taken the medication, they might wish to report the mistake directly to the pharmacy so that the correct medicine could be dispensed.

If, however, the person had taken some of the wrong medication, they may need to seek medical attention urgently, especially if they show symptoms that the medication is affecting them adversely.

Once medical attention had been sought and the patient had received advice or treatment, they might move on to reporting the pharmacy prescription error. The pharmacy itself has a duty to report medication errors to the National Reporting and Learning Service (NRLS).

Reporting Pharmacy Mistakes

If you have been the victim of an Asda Pharmacy wrong medication incident, then you could report the incident to the pharmacy itself, and they could take the matter to the NRLS so it could be recorded.

However, you might also wish to notify the NHS of the incident, which you could do by visiting this link to find the relevant contact details.

If you have concerns about the pharmacy or the pharmacists working there with regards to dispensing errors, or unprofessional behaviour, for example, you could report those concerns to the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Liability For Prescription Errors

Claiming compensation for prescription errors might mean you are not claiming against the pharmacy itself. Liable parties could include:

A GP – If your GP has issued the wrong prescription to you, whether as the result of a misdiagnosis or because they have made a mistake when raising the prescription, the GP could be liable for their prescribing faults and you could raise a medical malpractice claim.

The NHS – Sometimes, if you are given the wrong prescription from an NHS service, it could be the NHS that are held liable for your claim.

Private doctors/clinics – If you are worried about whether private doctors or clinics could be held liable, if there has been a breach in the duty of care, you could be eligible to claim compensation.

Pharmacists – As clinical professionals, sometimes, pharmacists could also be held liable for the harm you’ve suffered because of their negligence.

If you are at all unsure as to who could be liable for your wrong medication claim, our team could help. You can call us for free advice at any time.

What Impact Could The Wrong Medication Have?

Getting and taking the wrong medication could have a variety of adverse effects on patients. These could include:

Adverse Drug Interactions – If the wrong medication is given out alongside another medicine that you might already be taking, or that you might have been prescribed at the same time, these drugs could interact adversely, which could make you quite ill.

Under-medicating – If you have a condition that needs to be treated with a specific dose of medication and you are given the wrong instructions as to how much you need to take or are given a dose that is too low, then you might not effectively treat your condition. This could lead to a longer recovery, or it could lead to an infection spreading, for example, which might require more invasive treatment.

Overmedicating – If you are given a dose of something you do not need, or you are given too high a dose because of a prescription error, this could cause a range of adverse effects, depending on the medication and the dose. These could range from confusion to palpitations, to breathing difficulties and even death.

Types Of Wrong Medication Errors By Pharmacies

Wrong medication incidents could vary in severity, but they could also vary in type. Some common types of prescription errors in a pharmacy could include:

Incorrect instructions – If the right information is not given as to when a patient is supposed to take their medication, or they are not told the right amount to take, this could adversely impact their treatment.

Incorrect dosage – If the medication dispensed is not in the correct dosage, then an overdose or underdose could occur.

Incorrect prescription – If the medication dispensed is different to the medication that was prescribed, or you were given someone else’s prescription then this could also cause harm to the patient.

Mislabelling – If you were given the right label but the wrong medication was in the packet, this could cause someone to take medication that is not appropriate for them to take.

Prescription Error Compensation Calculator

If you are looking for information surrounding compensation payouts for pharmacy prescription error claims then you might have assumed that we’d include a personal injury claims calculator on this page to help you. Instead of doing this, we’ve put together a table that shows the Judicial College’s Guidelines for compensation for specific injuries relating to claims.

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Type of Injury Compensation Bracket (Approximate) Further Information
Severe Toxicosis £36,060 to £49,270 Cases that fall into this bracket could include those where injured parties have been treated in hospital for some weeks. Severe pain could be one of the symptoms suffered, along with vomiting, diarrhoea, and fever. The long-term consequences of cases falling into this bracket could include IBS, changes in the function of the bowels, difficulty with work because of symptoms and more.
Serious poisoning (Short-lived) £8,950 to £18,020 Diarrhoea/Vomiting. This could last from anywhere between 2-4 weeks with longer-term issues affecting the sex life, bowel function and food enjoyment of the injured party.
Less severe poisoning £3,710 to £8,950 The injured party could have suffered cramping, discomfort, fatigue and more. A full recovery of symptoms would likely take place within 1 and 2 years. Hospital admission.
Poisoning £860 to £3,710 Days/weeks of diarrhoea, pain, and cramping.
Damage to kidneys Up to £60,050 This bracket is high because of the high treatment costs associated with injuries in this bracket. These could include injuries that lead to loss of natural function of the kidney, or a high risk of developing UTIs in the future.
Damage to bowels £41,850 to £65,440 Severe abdominal injury causing impairment of function and often necessitating temporary colostomy, could lead to an inability of the affected person to attend work. It could also limit their food intake.

If your injury does not appear here, then you might be wondering whether you could claim for it and how much you’d receive. If you call our team, we could help to clarify this for you.

We should also mention that these are still only approximations. As part of your claim, you would need to see a medical expert so they could complete a report of your condition and your prognosis. This could then be used to value your claim.

Examples Of Costs Or Losses Which May Be Claimed

Alongside the compensation for the injuries you’ve suffered, you could also claim for losses and costs that you have incurred or are going to incur in the future as a direct consequence of your injuries. This could include:

Loss of earnings – If you have to stay off work for any length of time, and your wage is reduced as a result, these losses could be claimed for.

Care costs – If you need care with day-to-day tasks such as getting dressed or washed because of the injury you’ve suffered as a result of wrong medication negligence you could incur care costs. These could also be claimed for.

Medical costs – If you have had to pay for medical costs such as those relating to prescriptions, treatments such as counselling, etc, these could also be included within your claim.

Travel costs – Have you had to visit a medical facility or your lawyer during the course of your case? Or, have you needed to pay for transport to work because you couldn’t drive due to your injuries. Travel costs such as these could also be included as part of your claim.

If you’ve incurred any cost that you feel arose as a direct consequence of your injuries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for advice on whether you could include these costs within your clinical negligence claim.

How Our Team Could Help You

If you’re considering claiming compensation for injuries caused by an Asda Pharmacy wrong medication incident, we could help you. We do not charge for advice, and you would be under no obligation to go ahead and use our services if you were to call us for advice.

Our professional, friendly advisors are happy to answer any questions you could have about making a claim for compensation. We could offer insight into approximate compensation amounts for certain injuries, as well as giving you some guidance on who could be liable for your prescription claim.

One of the services we offer is a free assessment of your case to check if you could be eligible for compensation. We would listen to your case, ask some relevant questions, and then let you know whether we feel you could have a case for compensation.

If we believe you could have a valid claim, we could connect you with a medical negligence solicitor who works on a No Win No Fee basis, which means you would not have to pay upfront to begin your claim. Again, we should re-iterate, calling us to check your eligibility does not mean you are under any obligation to use our services.

Why Use Us?

We believe, along with the ability to get advice and support with making a claim, you could benefit from a fantastic level of service if you chose Accident Claims UK to help you with your claim.

We carefully choose our advisors not just for their professionalism but also for how much they care about what we do, and we believe this is why many of our previous clients have recommended us to others.

If you’d like to know more about our service, or you have any questions, please do call us – we’d be happy to hear from you.

No Win No Fee Claims Against A Pharmacy For A Prescription Error

One of the questions that could be considered would be whether to use a medical negligence lawyer for your claim. There are benefits from using the services of a capable lawyer to help you. You could allow them to take on the bulk of the work when it comes to pursuing your case, and you could also take their advice on whether a settlement offer could be appropriate for your case, or whether it could be possible for you to fight for more compensation for the harm you’ve suffered because of pharmacy prescription negligence.

You could retain the services of a solicitor without paying them until your claim was finalised. This would be classed as a No Win No Fee claim. When you start a claim of this type, you would be asked to sign a Conditional Fee Agreement. This document would detail the percentage of your final settlement that would be required by your lawyer as a success fee should your claim result in compensation. This percentage could vary between lawyers but would never be more than 25% because the government has put a cap in place to prevent this.

Once your lawyer has successfully negotiated a settlement for you, they could claim this success fee from your compensation payout. The rest of the compensation would then be to benefit you. If your lawyer failed to negotiate a settlement but you had a valid claim, you would not be required to pay them the success fee mentioned.

Contact Our Team

If you wish to learn more about the claims process, check your eligibility for claiming or would like to go ahead and begin an Asda Pharmacy prescription error claim, you can reach us in a number of ways. You could reach us by phone on 0800 073 8801, via e-mail at office@accidentclaims.co.uk, through our live chat feature, or via the contact form, which can be found here. Whatever your query, or your situation, we’ll do our best to offer guidance and support with your claim.

Wrong Medication Claim References

Below, you can find more guides on wrong medication claims:

Article by JJ

Edited by MM.