Pharmacy faces inquiries over wrong medicine

A Palmerston North pharmacy that has admitted wrongly filling a child's prescription is now facing two investigations.

The Heath and Disability Commissioner's office confirmed today it had received a complaint from the parents of two-year-old Emma Leader, who was given the wrong medicine.

The commissioner's office said it was assessing the complaint about the City Health Pharmacy and would decide what action to take.

And the Manawatu Standard newspaper reported that pharmacy watchdog MedSafe would conduct an urgent audit on the pharmacy this month to find out how it came to dispense a suspected powerful anti-psychotic instead of a steroid for Emma's cough.

The pharmacy has apologised for the mistake.

Emma spent the weekend seriously ill in Palmerston North Hospital after one 5mg dose of the incorrectly labelled medicine.

She received what is suspected to be the anti-psychotic drug risperidone, from a bottle supposed to contain the steroid prednisolone for her cough.

MidCentral District Health Board funding manager Mike Grant said the board, which pays out fees to pharmacists for dispensing medicines in the community, wants a review of the pharmacy's procedures.

"We are taking the incident very seriously. We have talked to MedSafe and agree it is timely that we look into it, and that an audit is undertaken promptly."

MedSafe routinely audits pharmacies each year, on behalf of the Health Ministry and district health boards, to ensure they have appropriate procedures, management and professional development systems in place.

If systematic problems are discovered which show an incident is more than a one-off, MedSafe can suspend a pharmacy's licence to dispense until the problem is fixed, and the board can review its contract.

Emma's parents, Gary and Lisa Leader received an apology and an explanation from the pharmacy on Tuesday night.

Mr Leader said they had a pleasant meeting with City Health Pharmacy owner Hamish Barham and his manager.

They apologised, admitted responsibility and gave them a letter of explanation.

- NZPA