Patient dies after pharmacy fails to supply medicine
Lack of treatment because a drug was out of stock contributed to a man’s death at Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital last year, an inquest
jury has ruled.
The patient died on 22 August last year, four days after being prescribed
chloramphenicol to treat bronchopneumonia associated with an aspergillus
infection. The drug was never administered.
The chloramphenicol was prescribed after the ward pharmacist had visited
the ward on 18 August. Instead of contacting the pharmacy about the prescription,
nursing staff made a note of the request on the drug chart, which was
not followed up by other nurses until the following morning. Nursing
staff contacted the pharmacy later, when the drug was not delivered to
the ward, only to be told that there was a supply problem. The medicine
was not delivered to the ward until 21 August, by which time the patient
was too ill to be given it and no alternative antibiotic had been administered.
The inquest heard that staff were not aware of the urgency of the prescription
and simply waited for the medicine it to arrive on the ward.
Professor Charles Goodwin, a microbiologist, told the inquest: “If
he had received chloramphenicol or the alternative he still may not have
recovered but at the time this was his only chance of survival.”
After the inquest, a spokesman for Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “As
a result of this incident, the trust has taken steps to ensure that additional
stocks of this drug are held on the wards where it is likely to be used
and we have implemented a change to our standard procedures to minimise
the chances of a similar problem occurring.”
— Plymouth Evening Herald |
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