When a prescription mistake changes your life

It might’ve been a box from your local chemist that didn’t match the prescription, a new pill that didn’t mix well with your current medications, or the wrong dosage. Even the smallest mistake on a personal prescription can have a big impact on you and your mental or physical health. 

Last year, 100 Canberrans complained about their medication to the ACT Human Rights Commission. Across Australia, around 250,000 people a year end up in hospital because something went wrong with their medicines, and roughly two-thirds of those admissions were potentially preventable. Among them are people who lost income and paid for treatment they should never have needed. All of them are in the statistics, and for most of them nobody ever explained what went wrong.

If that sounds familiar, here’s what you need to know.

How do prescription mistakes happen?

Medication errors can occur at any point in the chain, from the doctor writing the prescription, to the pharmacist filling it, to the nurse or carer administering it. Common examples include:

• Being prescribed the wrong medication entirely
• Receiving the correct medication but at the wrong dose
• Being given a drug that interacts dangerously with something else you’re taking
• A pharmacist dispensing the wrong medication or strength
• Not being warned about significant side effects or contraindications

According to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, medication errors are among the most frequently reported patient safety incidents in Australian hospitals, and they happen in GP clinics and pharmacies too.

What can go wrong?

The impact depends on the medication involved and how long the error went undetected. Some errors cause short-term harm that resolves with treatment. Others have permanent consequences, including:

• Serious organ damage from incorrect dosing
• Hospitalisation following dangerous drug interactions
• A condition going untreated because the wrong medication masked the symptoms
• Lasting physical harm from long-term use of an incorrectly prescribed drug

In the most serious cases, prescription mistakes have contributed to death.

Does a prescription mistake automatically mean negligence?

Not always, and it’s important to understand the distinction.

To establish a medical negligence claim, it’s generally necessary to show two things:

• That the healthcare provider failed to exercise reasonable care, whether that’s a GP who didn’t check your medication history, a pharmacist who dispensed the wrong drug, or a hospital that failed to monitor your response to treatment
• That failure caused you harm you wouldn’t otherwise have suffered

If a mistake was made but caught quickly and corrected before causing harm, a legal claim may not be viable. But where a prescription error caused real, lasting damage, that’s a very different situation.

Who can be held responsible?

Depending on how and where the error occurred, responsibility may lie with:

• A GP or specialist who prescribed incorrectly
• A pharmacist who dispensed the wrong medication or failed to flag a dangerous interaction
• A hospital or aged care facility that administered medication incorrectly
• Or a combination of parties across the chain of care

One of the first things an experienced medical negligence lawyer will do is trace exactly where the error occurred and identify who had a duty of care to you at that point.

What compensation may be available?

If you have a successful claim, compensation can cover:

• Past and future medical expenses, including the cost of treating the harm caused by the error
• Lost income or reduced earning capacity if the mistake has affected your ability to work
• Pain and suffering
• Any ongoing care costs if your injuries require long-term support

What should you do if you think a prescription mistake harmed you?

Act as soon as you can. Start by:

• Keeping any medication packaging, prescription paperwork, or receipts you have
• Requesting your medical records from your GP, specialist, hospital or pharmacy, you’re entitled to them under the Privacy Act 1988
• Seeing a doctor to document your current condition and how it connects to the error
• Getting legal advice early, time limits apply to medical negligence claims in the ACT, and acting promptly protects your options

We’re here to help

At Maliganis Edwards Johnson, we understand that a prescription mistake can feel like a betrayal of trust at a moment when you were relying on the people caring for you. Our experienced medical negligence team offers free, confidential consultations, no legal jargon, just a clear conversation about what happened and what your options are.

Contact us today or call 1800 570 778.