A local pharmacy today told my Mum she could top herself on paracetamol?

Question: Not in those words but they messed up her prescription, giving her 500/8mg cocodamol instead of her normal 500/30mg, when she called to complain they told her to make up for the missing codeine by taking more tablets! luckily she called me and i warned her it was dangerous so she called back and spoke to the actual pharmacist who also warned her not to.

Has anyone else had any problems with chemists making mistakes?

I don't use this chemist anymore as they once gave me the wrong medicine for my daughter. when she was 4 months old they gave her medicine for kids aged 1-10!!! yes i have complained and there was an investigation, the official reasons for their continuous errors (there were more) was staff shortages altho personally it seemed more like staff incompetance.

Answers:
I am really sorry to hear about your experiences - i work in a pharmacy and would never dream about giving this kind of advice, hopefully with professional registration staff will be better trained and informed about the medicines they are prescibing

By the way this is quite true that your mother would have overdosed on paracetamol if she took more than 8 tablets in 24 hours.

you have my sympathies

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I'm very sorry for your poor experience.

It is very easy to give out the wrong medications, which is why there are such strict rules in place that everyone working in a Pharmacy follows. Unforunately, you always get a few bad apples that let things go wrong.

Staff shortages can be to blame, often pharmacies are understaffed and the pressure is very high. Also, people working in pharmacies often don't get much respect - the amount of people who say, oh, its only a bottle of antibiotics. Actually it is a lot more than that!

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Generally pharmamcists are great, and well qualified. They are human though, and we all make mistakes. Dispensing mistakes are rare but do happen.....always double check any new prescrption with them or the doctor before going home.

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