Lloydspharmacy ordered to pay compensation after steroid error
Lloydspharmacy is waiting to find out how
much compensation it will have to pay a US lawyer after being found liable for the ill-health she suffered from an excessive dose of dexamethasone (PJ, 14 October,
p440).
In the High Court last week, Mr Justice Keith ruled that pharmacist N’Guessan
Gabla, then manager of the company’s Selsdon branch in south London, “fell
below the standards which could reasonably have been expected of a reasonably
careful and competent pharmacist”.
The judge said that the accepted wisdom was that pharmacists should consider
whether prescribed medication was suitable for the patient. He added
that the most significant criticism was that it should have occurred
to Mr Gabla that the prescription for dexamethasone tablets that were
eight times the strength of those that had been dispensed for Cathy Horton
on seven previous occasions was a mistake.
“I have no doubt that what Mr Gabla should have done was to follow
the instruction in the branch procedures manual and question the correctness
of the prescription with [the prescriber] Dr Evans,” the judge
said.
The judge accepted that the deterioration in Ms Horton’s health
did not result from the tablets dispensed by Mr Gabla. It had only begun
after a doctor in the US prescribed 4mg tablets after reading the Lloydspharmacy
dispensing label. However, he ruled that there was a direct causal link
between Mr Gabla’s failure to question the prescription and the
American doctor providing a 4mg daily dose.
Ms Horton is claiming £5m in damages, having already reached an
undisclosed settlement of her claim against Earlsfield GP Timothy Evans,
who wrote the prescription in question. |
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