Medical negligence Have you got the right prescription?

Today there are so many medicines on the market with similar names that patients can become easily confused about which drugs they are supposed to take and get in a right muddle when they venture to the chemist. However, we don't expect medical professionals to make the same mistakes, thereby committing medical negligence that can have devastating effects.

There was one case where a patient was prescribed sixty-times the recommended dose of Librium, a tranquiliser used for the treatment of alcoholism, to treat his depression when he should have actually been prescribed Lithium. Unsurprisingly, the man died and despite the hospital's obvious clinical negligence they attempted to blame the man's untimely departure on a bought of pneumonia.

There are a number of common medically negligent errors that could occur in UK, hospitals, GP surgeries and chemists:

Patient records - a doctor may not have complete information about a patient or may fail to read their medical notes properly. If a patient has certain allergies to drugs prescribed to them or are already taking other medicines that could react badly with the drugs, a GP is putting the patient in grave danger.

Updates drugs - are constantly tested and re-tested to make sure that they are safe for public use. One example is the contraceptive pill; there are so many risks such as Deep Vein Thrombosis, breast cancer and infertility to consider that the hundreds of different pills available undergo constant tests. If a medical professional is not up to date with recent findings about a particular drug you may be at risk of serious personal injury.

Miscommunication - some doctors are renowned for their scrappy handwriting which could turn out to be a serious problem. Although many prescriptions go through a computer system and are printed out, GPs occasionally have problems getting into the right system or file and have to resort to the old fashioned method of prescription writing using pen and paper. Poor handwriting could lead a chemist to mistake one drug for another with a similar name. Errors with quantity are also not uncommon and a nought or a decimal point in the wrong place could have fatal consequences.

Labelling - different patients will take different quantities of specific medicines so labelling and repackaging each drug for every individual is a vital part of practice. There are a variety of factors that could cause a GP or a chemist to mislabel your drugs while dispensing which could see them up on a medical negligence charge.

Make a no win, no fee claim for medical negligence
If you or a member of your family has suffered medical negligence at the hands of medical staff, a chemist or health care organisation then you could be in a position to make a personal injury compensation claim.

Whether you have had the wrong medicine administered to you, have suffered infection resulting from poor hospital cleanliness or have suffered a birth injury, we may be able to help you under the no win no fee agreement.

We can assign you an expert personal injury solicitor with a fantastic success rate to fight your corner. Your solicitor will be at hand to offer you free legal advice and will talk you through each stage of the claim.

An act of medical negligence can have devastating effects on both your physical and mental health and if you have suffered personal injury through no fault of your own we may be able to help you claim for pain, suffering, medical expenses, lost earnings and more.

You won't have to pay out for fees, win or lose, and we guarantee that you will get to keep all compensation that you are awarded as we don't believe in taking a cut for ourselves.

To find out more, request a call back and we will contact you whenever you tell us it is most convenient. Fill out details of your accident and injury on one of our online claim forms and get the claim process rolling today or give us a call, any time of the day or night, on 0800 10 757 95 and make a no win, no fee claim for medical negligence.