If you are unwell right now after taking the wrong medication, get medical help before anything else. Call 111 for advice, or 999 in an emergency. Once you are safe, a medication error may form a claim where it fell below the expected standard and caused you avoidable harm.
MEDICATION ERROR - Any mistake in prescribing, dispensing or administering a medicine. That includes the wrong drug, the wrong dose, a known allergy overlooked, and a medicine that should have been monitored but was not.
What counts as a medication error?
The wrong drug prescribed or dispensed
The right drug at the wrong dose or strength
A recorded allergy overlooked
A known interaction with something else you take
A medicine that required monitoring, where the monitoring did not happen
Instructions given wrongly, or not given at all
Not every error causes harm, many are spotted quickly and nothing comes of them. A claim depends on the error having caused you an injury or made an existing condition worse.
What should I do first?
Get medical advice: speak to a pharmacist, your GP or 111 about what you have taken. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own without advice.
Keep the packaging and the label: the dispensing label, the box and any paperwork. This is the clearest evidence of what you were actually given.
Write down the sequence: when it was prescribed, when it was collected, when you noticed, and who you told.
Report it: tell the prescriber and the pharmacy. Reporting is how errors get corrected, and it does not commit you to anything further.
Who is responsible?
It depends on where the error happened, and working that out is part of the investigation rather than something you need to resolve yourself.
A prescribing error usually points to the GP practice or the hospital.
A dispensing error, where the prescription was right but what came out of the bag was not, points to the pharmacy.
An administration error, where the wrong thing was given to a patient on a ward, points to the hospital trust - sometimes more than one is involved.
What would I need to prove?
That the error fell below the standard expected, and that it caused you harm. The first is often relatively clear with medication, because the correct drug and dose are usually a matter of record rather than of judgement.
The second is where these claims turn, if you took the wrong tablet, noticed quickly and suffered no lasting effect, there may be nothing to claim for even though the mistake was obvious.
How long do I have?
Three years is the usual limit. What matters is when that clock starts, and it does not always start on the day of the treatment, it can run from the date you first realised your injury might be connected to your care, which for a delayed diagnosis can be much later.
Different rules apply to children, and to adults who lack the capacity to manage their own affairs. If you are close to three years, or unsure where you stand, it is worth asking sooner rather than later.
Can I report it without making a claim?
Yes, and the two are separate.
You can raise it with the prescriber or the pharmacy directly, use the NHS complaints process, and report a suspected side effect through the Yellow Card scheme run by the MHRA. None of that commits you to a claim, and none of it prevents one.
Did a medication error cause you harm?
Tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly whether it looks like a claim, free and without obligation.
Frequently asked questions
There are more on our FAQ page.