How you can end up taking the wrong medication

Medical negligence, also sometimes referred to as clinical negligence, is something that we are hearing about more and more. Medical professionals have a pretty tough job and a great deal of responsibility on their shoulders. Unfortunately for them, part of that responsibility includes not making any mistakes that lead to further injury and end up doing their patients more harm than good. Some examples of medical negligence that doctors need to be careful to avoid, so their patients don’t end up taking the wrong medication, include prescribing the wrong medication, wrong doses of medications and misdiagnosis.  All of these will end up with an individual taking a medicine that is not right for his or her condition or the wrong dose of medicine, which could interfere with other medications and health conditions or cause a completely new injury or illness.

Wrong Medication

Prescribing errors as the name suggests is when something goes wrong regarding the prescription. This usually means that one of two things happened. Either the prescription was inappropriate or the prescription didn’t effectively communicate information. The former means basically that whilst the diagnosis was correct the individual who wrote the prescription didn’t take into account additional factors concerning the patient, such as their allergies or potential interaction with other drugs. The latter refers to a prescription with notes that are ambiguous or illegible handwriting.

Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis will inevitably lead to incorrect treatment and therefore the wrong medication, but this will often fall under the medical negligence category of misdiagnosis.

The next step

If you have been prescribed and therefore taken the wrong medication, you could be entitled to some form of compensation. For more information find a reputable firm of personal injury solicitors and seek their advice regarding how to move forward and the most effective way to file your claim for compensation.