Pharmacy Malpractice

Pharmacy malpractice occurs when a prescription is filled incorrectly. Prescription errors occur when a wrong medication or dosage is given. Obviously when the medication is consumed by the patient it can have adverse side effects. These side effects can be immediate and life threatening if the error is serious. They can also lead to more chronic conditions that will affect the patient’s tolerance for certain types of medication in the future.

Responsibility of a Pharmacist

A pharmacist owes a duty of care to the persons receiving his or her prescriptions. This duty requires the pharmacist to act competently and to fill the prescription correctly. It also requires the pharmacist to inform the patient of the medication’s purpose and how it is to be administered. It is also the pharmacist’s responsibility to warn the patient of possible drug interactions. The patient should also be alerted to side effects that they need to monitor. If the pharmacist fails in discharging any of these duties in a competent manner then he or she has breached the duty of care. When the duty of care has been breached then a case of pharmacy malpractice or pharmacy negligence has occurred.

Pharmacist Liability

Once it is proven that the pharmacist has committed pharmacy malpractice or pharmacy negligence then liability is imposed on the pharmacist for the consequences of the error. The pharmacist will be liable to compensate for pain and suffering, medical care and other financial losses and expense caused by his or her negligence.

Examples of Pharmacist Negligence

Negligent pharmacists can be held responsible for committing errors that involve:

• filling a prescription with the wrong medication
• filling a prescription with the wrong dose
• providing someone else’s prescription to the patient
• filling a prescription without clarifying an ambiguity in the doctor’s script
• giving erroneous instructions to the patient as to how they are to take the medication
• compounding a medication incorrectly
• failing to warn the patient about serious drug interactions
• failing to warn the patient about serious side effects that may occur and need to be monitored
• incorrectly labelling the medication container

Pharmacy Malpractice Lawyers in Toronto Ontario

In qualified cases our malpractice lawyers will take on your pharmacist malpractice case on a contingency fee basis. This means that you will not have to pay a legal fee unless our law firm successfully recovers compensation for you. If you contact our law firm, our attorneys will meet with you, discuss your case and the potential options and then proceed accordingly. If you retain our firm we will hire the necessary experts and or investigators to make sure that your case receives the attention it deserves. If you or someone you know wish to speak with a lawyer about your potential pharmacist malpractice case, call our law firm at 416.862.0997 or toll free at 1.866.900.0997. You may also complete our case evaluation form for a free consultation.

Although our offices are in Toronto we take cases throughout Ontario including Ajax, Barrie, Brampton, Cambridge, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Milton, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara Falls, Oakville, Oshawa, Ottawa, Pickering, Richmond Hill, St. Catherines, Sudbury and Vaughan.