Words by ITV News Producer Michael Maitland-Jones
Deborah Davison didn’t think twice about taking the medication given to her by the in-house pharmacy at her GP surgery while she was pregnant.
She was expecting to be given antibiotics for a UTI she was suffering from.
“I was incredibly unwell, largely confined to bed, and much more vulnerable than usual,” she recalled.
However, after three days of taking the tablets, she was called by the GP practice asking her to come in immediately and bring the medication with her.
She recalled the “panic” of whether what she’d been taking could affect her pregnancy, adding: “Initially, I was just like, what have I been taking, is it going to have side effects, is this dangerous?”
Deborah Davison says she has frequently been confused with other patients at her GP practice
Ms Davison was particularly nervous because she had had a miscarriage at 16 weeks before getting pregnant again, and was doing everything she could to stay healthy.
She was told that the medication given to her had, in fact, been antidepressants meant for someone with a similar name to her.
“Normally, if I’d been fit and well, I think I would have noticed”, she said.
Deborah didn’t suffer any lasting harm from the mix-up, with cases like hers dubbed “near misses” in the medical profession.
But while she received an apology at the time, she said she continued to be confused with other patients at the practice.
“Surely this must be happening a lot if it can happen to me and nothing is changed,” she said.
‘Lost in the system’
Data shows that cases like hers are not uncommon. Research published by Healthwatch and the King’s Fund says that two-thirds of patients and carers who used NHS services in the 12 months to April experienced at least one administrative problem.
This can range from people receiving incorrect letters about appointments or struggling to get results from scans, to incidents like what happened to Ms Davison.
In a statement, Healthwatch England said there are “countless” stories of information being miscommunicated to patients.
It added that admin failures “frustrate patients, leaving people feeling forgotten during waits for care and damaging confidence in services”.
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The statement said: “Incorrect medical records can have serious implications for patient safety… poor admin affects the efficiency of the NHS, for example when clinicians’ time is wasted with patient no-shows caused by wrong or delayed appointment letters.
“Moving to a system that gets admin right and invests in admin staff development would have the potential to transform people’s experience of care.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care said that: “All pharmacists and pharmacy staff are required to follow robust procedures to ensure medicines are correctly supplied to each patient, as well as carrying out appropriate checks before any medicine is dispensed.”
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