Well Pharmacy Prescription Error Claims Guide - How To Make A Wrong Medication Negligence Compensation Claim?

If you have become the victim of a Well Pharmacy prescription error, then this guide is aimed at you. We will show you how a prescription error could be construed as clinical negligence, and how a medical negligence solicitor could assist you in processing a claim for you.

Each claim is unique in some way, and this means that we might not answer every question you have in this guide. Don’t worry if you have additional questions, all you have to do is give our team a call on 0800 652 3087. An advisor will answer your questions, and provide any other help you need.

Choose A Topic:

A Guide On Making A Wrong Medication Negligence Claim Against Well Pharmacy
What Are Pharmacy Prescription Errors?
Top Types Of Prescription Mistakes By Pharmacies
Drug And Prescription Medication Side Effects
Time limits To Claim For A Prescription Error By A Pharmacy
What Could I Claim? – Pharmacy Prescription Error Negligence Calculator
No Win, No Fee Well Pharmacy Prescription Error Claims
How Medical Negligence Assist Could Help You Make A Pharmacy Negligence Claim
Start A Claim Against Your Pharmacist
Further Information

A Guide On Making A Wrong Medication Negligence Claim Against Well Pharmacy

In this online guide, we will look at why when a Well Pharmacy gets your prescription wrong, they could be guilty of medication negligence, and how to go about making a claim for this.

The first part of this guide relates to information about pharmacy errors, how they happen and the way that they can affect a person’s life. We have covered a basic definition of these kinds of mistakes and why you could be eligible to claim if you are the victim of one. You will find a detailed section that explains how these mistakes come about and the many forms they can take as well.

The next part of this guide covers some of the legal and financial aspects of making a claim. We cover the statutory claims time limits that may apply. We have also provided you with a table that details possible compensation ranges for different severities of illness. Lastly, we give some advice on how to get your claim underway and also explain what a No Win, No Fee claim is, how it works and also why using the services of a solicitor offering this kind of fee agreement could be a good thing.

If you have questions that this guide doesn’t cover, or about the claims process in general, please use the telephone number near the top of the page to reach out to our team. An expert advisor will be happy to address your questions, and also provide you with key information you need about making a claim.

What Are Pharmacy Prescription Errors?

When a pharmacy gives you the wrong medication, negligence could be construed to have been the cause. This also holds true for other pharmaceutical errors, such as being given the wrong dose of medication, or the wrong instructions on how to take your medication.

Every pharmacist in the UK is bound by the same duty of care as every other medical professional. This extends to pharmacy staff as well since the pharmacist is responsible for supervising them and ensuring that they do their jobs properly. This duty of care can be simply summed up as: every medical professional must contribute to delivering and improving the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public.

If a mistake is made with a prescription, and the patients’ health is negatively affected, then this duty of care could have been breached. In such cases, it could be possible for the victim to make a compensation claim for the harm they have suffered. However, there are some key criteria that each claim will need to fulfil before it is potentially valid, and these are:

The medical professional clearly had a duty of care towards the victim.
A breach in this duty of care directly or indirectly exposing the victim to the risk of harm.
The breach led to the victim being armed and that taking a different course of action would have prevented the harm and upheld the medical professional’s duty of care.

If you believe that this describes your circumstances, you could have a valid basis to make a medical negligence claim. If you speak to one of our advisors, they will evaluate your claim for you and confirm whether you are possibly eligible to make a claim for the harm a pharmaceutical error has caused you.

Top Types Of Prescription Mistakes By Pharmacies

When a pharmacy has made a mistake, there are many forms this mistake can make. In the sections below we will go over some of the more typical ways these errors are made. However, there are many more ways mistakes can happen that could leave the victim eligible to make a claim.

Delays In Delivering A Prescription

A delay in receiving medication can have serious, even life-threatening consequences for some people. When a pharmacist causes a delay in providing a patient with the medication they need, such as making a mistake ordering replacement stock, then they could be guilty of medical negligence.

Dangerous Interactions Between Different Drugs

Different kinds of drugs, when taken together, can have unpredictable results due to possible interactions between them. When dispensing medication, your pharmacist is expected to perform a final check, making sure that the drugs you have been prescribed have no known interactions. This includes making sure that any new medication you are prescribed will not react with other long-term medication you have been taking regularly for some time.

Allergic Reactions To A Medication

People can have an allergic reaction to medication, even if they have been taking the medication for some time. When a patient is prescribed and dispensed medication that they are known to be allergic to, then they could be able to claim. Allergic reactions to medication can be serious, including death due to anaphylaxis.

An Incorrect Dose Of Your Medication

Taking too much or too little of the correct medication can have harmful effects. Too little medication would mean that your medical condition is not being treated effectively. Too much medication could result in health hazards, such as a drug overdose.

Being Given Another Person’s Prescription

At a busy pharmacy, it is possible that two people could receive the wrong medication due to their prescriptions being mixed up. And of course, this leaves each of the two patients at risk of an allergic reaction to a medication, or any other possible negative effect of taking the medication they have been given mistakenly.

Being Given The Wrong Prescription

Pharmacy staff have to select medication from stock shelves to make up every prescription. If the shelves have been stocked incorrectly, with the wrong medication being put in the wrong place, or the doses mixed up, this can lead to an error in making up a prescription. Alternatively, the pharmacy staff could simply make a mistake and pick the wrong medication entirely.

Drug And Prescription Medication Side Effects

We have already explained how making a medical negligence claim is similar to using a personal injury solicitor to make a personal injury claim. In the case of side effects to medication, the patient should have been informed of possible side effects when the medication was prescribed to them, and they will have agreed to risk suffering these side effects and take the medication. Therefore, experiencing side effects alone would not be due cause to make a negligence complaint. However, if the patient was not warned about potential side effects before they started taking a new medication, then it could be possible to show that the medical professionals involved could have been guilty of medical negligence in some way.

Time limits To Claim For A Prescription Error By A Pharmacy

Just as there is a personal injury claims time limit for accident and injury claims, there are time limits for starting a claim for medical negligence against a pharmacist. The basic time limits are set out in the table below.

Circumstances	Time Limit
The claimant is over the age of 18.	Three years from the day that the negligence took place, or the day that a medical condition caused by the negligence was diagnosed.
The claimant is under the age of 18.	Three years from the claimant’s 18^th birthday, unless a litigation friend is making a claim on their behalf before they turn 18.

In some cases, these time limits can differ. You should speak to our team on the number at the top of this guide to find out which time limit will apply in your own case.

What Could I Claim? – Pharmacy Prescription Error Negligence Calculator

If you have ever made or thought about making an accident or injury claim in the past, you may have used some kind of online personal injury claims calculator to get a rough idea of the level of compensation you might be able to claim. The table below performs the same function for pharmaceutical error claims. You can look up the severity of illness that you have suffered and find out the range of compensation that you could possibly claim. This table was created using the Judicial College Guidelines, a legal publication used by solicitors and the courts to value claims.

Health Issue	How Bad?	Compensation	Notes
Illness	Minor	Up to £3,710	In this bracket, we would see illnesses that manifest symptoms such as diarrhoea, severe pain, muscle or stomach cramps, etc. These symptoms would continue for up to several weeks.
Illness	Moderate	£3,710 to £8,950	In this bracket we would see illnesses that manifest symptoms such as diarrhoea, muscle or stomach cramps, problems with bowel function, general fatigue, etc. The victim may initially be hospitalised, with the main symptoms clearing up with a few weeks, but lingering symptoms may last up to two years.
Illness	Serious	£8,950 to £18,020	In this bracket, we would see illnesses that are serious, but only short-lasting. The illness would manifest symptoms such as diarrhoea, muscle or stomach cramps, etc. But these symptoms would diminish rapidly. Long-term symptoms such as a negative effect on the victim’s sex life, loss of enjoyment of food, impaired bowel function, etc. could last for years.
Illness	Severe	£36,060 to £49,270	In this bracket, we would see illnesses that are potentially life-threatening and will require the victim to be quickly hospitalised for treatment. Symptoms would last for the long-term.

You might want a more accurate estimate of the value of your claim, and if you do, a medical negligence lawyer will need to evaluate your case for you. This is something our team can organise if you give them a call on the number at the top or bottom of the page.

If your claim is a success, the level of compensation you receive will depend on how much pain and suffering you went through, and the financial impact of becoming ill. Your total settlement could be made up of two heads of claim: general damages and special damages.

Special damages are paid in relation to financial and other kinds of non-physical losses. If you intend to claim for costs incurred, you will need to provide documented evidence to back up your claims. Special damages might include:

Compensation to cover out of pocket expenses such as train and bus tickets, taxi fares to appointments and so on.
The costs you incurred due to having to hire a nurse to help take care of you at home.
Any private medical treatment that you had to pay for, that you couldn’t get for free on the National Health Service (NHS).
To make up for any loss of earnings that were the result of you taking time off from work.
Your future earning potential being negatively affected due to reduced working capacity or even not being able to work at all in the future.

General damages are paid in relation to the physical and psychological harm suffered. The settlement you receive will include a provision for general damages that has been calculated based on how much pain and suffering you went through, how traumatic the treatment you received was, and whether there will be any long-term or permanent health issues due to your illness. General damages might be paid for reasons such as:

General pain and suffering caused by being ill.
Stress and trauma due to being ill, especially if your illness lasted a long time.
Psychological damage, such as depression or anxiety, that was a direct result of being ill. For example, depression caused by being bedridden for an extended period.
Painful, traumatic or invasive treatment that was required as part of the overall regime for curing your illness.
Long-term or permanent impairment of function, such as a disability that will negatively affect your quality of life.

These are some of the more commonly seen kinds of damages a claimant might receive if their clinical negligence claim is a success. You might wish to learn the types of damages that might apply to your own claim. If you do, speak to our team and one of our advisors will go over your claim with you to give you a general indication of the kinds of damages that might be applicable.

No Win No Fee Well Pharmacy Prescription Error Claims

You may already be aware that a personal injury lawyer can process an accident or injury claim for you under a No Win, No Fee agreement. But did you know that the same is true for medical negligence claims? A solicitor specialising in clinical negligence claims can work under what is known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

Under a CFA, a solicitor can provide you with all the legal help you need to prepare for making a claim, and then processing it on your behalf. With the added benefit of negating some of the traditional financial risks of making a compensation claim.

The solicitor is not going to expect to be paid any kind of new claims fee to start working in your claim. They will also not expect to be paid ongoing legal fees while they are processing your claim for you, and in complex claims, this can take months or even years. If the claim fails and you do not receive a compensation settlement, your solicitor will not expect to collect any of the fees they have accrued up until this stage.

If the claim is a success, your solicitor may request that you pay a small success fee. This success fee is legally capped and will be agreed with you before the claim begins. If you would like to learn more about the way a No Win, No Fee clinical negligence claim works, you can call our team. One of our advisors would be more than happy to outline the claims process, and also let you know whether you could have a clinical negligence lawyer work on your claim under a CFA.

How Medical Negligence Assist Could Help You Make A Pharmacy Negligence Claim

If you have become the victim of pharmacy negligence, there are a number of ways that we might be able to help you. Firstly, we can answer any questions you have about the claims process or any aspect of your own claim. We can also provide you with key information, such as the statutory time limit that will apply, and also how a No Win, No Fee claim can help you to get the compensation you are eligible for. One of our advisors can evaluate your claim for you, inform you of your legal options, and then let you know what your next steps should be.

Our panel of clinical negligence solicitors has over three decades of experience across the full range of claims. They will always do everything possible to ensure your claim is a success, whilst never doing anything that may jeopardise your case. Your solicitor will aim to get you the highest level of compensation possible.

Whenever you need an update on what your solicitor has been doing on your behalf or the overall status of your claim, just give us a call. One of our team will provide you with the information you need using plain and simple English and not legalese so that you understand everything fully. If you want more information on how to begin your claim, please speak to one of our advisors on the number below.

Start A Claim Against Your Pharmacist

Did a pharmacy get your prescription wrong? Did you receive the wrong medication, the wrong dose, or the wrong instructions on how to take your medication? If yes, then we might be in a position to help you make a medical negligence claim for the harm that you have suffered. You can contact our team on 0800 652 3087. An expert advisor will be able to provide you with all the help you need to get your claim underway as quickly as possible.