£20,000 payout for patient who was given the wrong pills by Lloyds Pharmacy

Steven Edwards, 70, has been awarded £20,000 compensation after Lloyds Pharmacy mistakenly gave him pills for prostrate problems instead of his usual medication to control his blood pressure.

Mr Edwards had been taking the pills for eight years and wasn't initially concerned when he was given different coloured tablets.

It was only when he started getting concerning symptoms and feeling constantly ill that he checked the packaging and realised he'd been given Finasteride for prostate problems rather than Felodipine, which he'd prescribed by his doctor for blood pressure.

Mr Edwards, from Hull, said it was a frightening time: “I didn’t think anything of the tablets being a different colour, as I’ve known pharmacies change suppliers in the past, so they can change colour but be the same medication.

"It wasn’t long before I started to feel quite ill though and developed the headaches and pains. I just wasn’t right.

“It was after a couple of weeks that I considered the tablets and when I looked I saw the label sticker across the box with my name on had a different medication name to that on the box. It was a frightening time as there had been stories in the news about somebody dying after being given the wrong tablets.”

When he took the tablets back he said the pharmacy in the Marfleet Health Centre on Preston Road, Hull, admitted their error and his blood pressure was found to be high.

But when he went to his health centre for a routine check the following week and his blood pressure was still high, his doctor wasn't aware of what had happened.

Mr Edwards, who ran his own business at the time, didn't want the matter brushed under the carpet so he sought legal advice.

He said: “I find it hard to understand how this happened as it can’t have been a mistake by a single person, as surely someone has to make up the prescription, then somebody should check it, and there should be a final check before it is handed to a patient

“When I went in the (health centre the) week after and my blood pressure was high, it appeared that the doctor wasn’t aware of what had happened with my medication, and that didn’t seem right so I thought I should take it further. That’s when I sought legal advice.

“These mistakes shouldn’t happen.

"I thought it needed investigating as, if the worse had happened to me, my family would have lost a husband, father and grandfather who they depend on, but I’d just be another number in the NHS statistics.”

Legal representatives of the pharmacy admitted breach of duty following the mistake in January 2018.

Part of the compensation covered the cost of cognitive behavioural therapy to address the psychological impact of the error.

Medical negligence claims specialist at Hudgell Solicitors, Rachel O’Connor, said they were pleased to secure the settlement for Mr Edwards, without the need for the matter to go to court.