Click below to read the C+D article about former locum pharmacist , Elizabeth Lee who has been given a suspended three month jail term for a dispensing error. The patient collapsed within minutes of taking eight propranolol tablets instead of the prescribed prednisolone and died in hospital three days later.
This is a tragic case for the patient and her family but also for Elizabeth who has decided to resign from the register. I hope that all pharmacy contractors take time to consider their actions when cutting staff hours or deciding not to engage locum technician cover when staff are either sick or, as in this case, on maternity leave. Could this have happened is locum technician cover was available? The answer is that is still could have happened but that it was much less likely to.
To cap all this, I bet the RPSGB in their wisdom would have either suspended or permanently removed Elizabeth from the register if she had not done so herself. Unfortunately this might still happen as resignation doesn’t stop the Society taking action. Could you see the BMA doing this?
Link to C+D article
Related posts:
- RPSGB decide not to take disciplinary action against Elizabeth Lee
- Decriminalisation of dispensing errors
- Daily Mail report of Tesco dispensing error
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I am really sorry for the poor pharmacist who unfortunately found herself this sad situation and i also feel sorry for the family of the dead victim but at the same time ,i dont think a jail term should be given to someone who did not commit an intentional offence, this is really harsh and i think the law should be ammended, as an health proffessional mistakes are bound to happen especially in community pharmacy where employers expect pharmacist to dispense and check prescriptions, this is very bad and should never be allowed to happen.
If the rpsgb can create a law that prevents pharmacists from dispensing and checking at the same time i think all this unnecessary and silly errors will be minimised,am a pharmacist myself and i know what it is like to dispense and check by oneself, this is very unfair to community pharmacist who are being treated as technicians rather than pharmacist.
Treating a pharmacist as a criminal because of dispensing error is really unfair and inhuman, please can something be done? since the Elizabeth story i have almost lost confidence as am too cautious now and it takes me double the time i spent checking sc ripts before this whole story.very sad indeed.