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Case ref:201600743
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Date:November 2016
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Body:Lothian NHS Board
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Sector:Health
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Outcome:Upheld, no recommendations
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Subject:clinical treatment / diagnosis
Summary
Mrs C attended an out-of-hours GP service with sinus congestion and ear pain. Mrs C complained that medication was unreasonably prescribed without proper checks being carried out into allergies.
Mrs C was asked about known allergies by a nurse practitioner and declared the one she knew about. The nurse practitioner did not check her electronic care summary. Mrs C was then prescribed a drug she had previously suffered an adverse reaction to. The drug made her feel unwell. Mrs C only discovered she had a recorded allergy to the drug prescribed when she went to hospital for unrelated treatment.
We took independent medical advice. We found that the nurse practitioner should have checked the electronic care summary. We therefore upheld Mrs C's complaint. However, we were satisfied that the failure to check the electronic care summary was one of human error rather than evidence of a deficit in the training or clinical ability of the nurse practitioner. We found evidence that the practitioner and the out-of-hours service had reflected appropriately on the sequence of events and had apologised to Mrs C.