Prescription Error & Medication Negligence Claims

If a medicine is prescribed, supplied, or monitored incorrectly, the consequences can be serious. Medication negligence can happen in GP practices, hospitals, pharmacies, care settings, and community services, and it may involve a single mistake or a pattern of repeat prescribing without proper review.

At McCarthy + Co Solicitors LLP, we are a long-established firm with more than 30 years of experience helping people across Ireland to pursue medical negligence and medical product liability claims. Our medical negligence team is led by John McCarthy, an experienced litigation solicitor who has acted in complex medical negligence and product liability cases at every level of the Irish courts.
Medication negligence usually falls into one of two legal routes:

• Clinical negligence, where a healthcare professional or pharmacist failed to meet the standard of care expected, and that failure caused injury; and
• Product liability, where the medicine itself was defective and caused harm, even where no individual clinician acted negligently. In Ireland, strict liability for defective products is governed by the Liability for Defective Products Act 1991.

In practice, some cases involve both routes, for example where a harmful side effect was known or foreseeable, and the medicine should have been reviewed, stopped, or changed sooner. A clinical negligence claim of this kind does not go through the Injuries Resolution Board; it is brought directly in court, which is one reason early, specialist advice matters.

Bringing a medication error claim

You may have grounds to pursue a claim where a mistake involving medication causes avoidable injury, including where:

• the wrong medicine was prescribed, or the prescription was issued for the wrong patient;
• the dosage was incorrect, or unclear instructions led to an overdose or an underdose;
• repeat prescriptions continued for months or years without appropriate review, monitoring, or follow-up;
• test results, red flags, or warning symptoms were not acted on, and the medication was not adjusted in time;
• a prescriber failed to consider allergies, underlying conditions, pregnancy, or known contraindications;
• a drug interaction risk was missed, including interactions with over-the-counter medicines;
• a dispensing error occurred at the pharmacy level, including the wrong strength or the wrong medicine being supplied; and
• a medicine caused a recognised adverse effect, and reasonable steps were not taken to investigate, warn, or change treatment.

If you believe a prescription error, dispensing mistake, monitoring failure, or defective medicine caused you harm, we can help you understand your options. Arrange a consultation with a solicitor using our quick and confidential online form.

Medication errors in Ireland

Medication is involved in a very large number of healthcare interactions, so it is, unfortunately, also a common source of error. Only a small proportion of those errors cause serious harm, and fewer still lead to a claim, but the pattern of the claims that are brought is revealing. The most detailed Irish study of the area, a State Claims Agency-based review of 79 medication-related claims finalised between 2011 and 2016, found the following.

Source: McCullagh and others, ‘Medication related litigation in Ireland: a 6-year review’, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (2019), using State Claims Agency data.

Two points stand out for anyone considering a claim. First, most medication claims arise not from the medicine itself being defective, but from how it was prescribed or administered, which is a matter of clinical negligence. Second, the medicines most often involved are those where the margin for error is smallest, such as anaesthetics, strong painkillers, and blood-thinning drugs. This is why a careful review of exactly what was prescribed, dispensed, and administered, and by whom, is central to establishing whether a claim exists.