"My husband urgently needing antibiotics"

My poor husband has got a urinary tract problem and was prescribed antibiotics by the doctor. Unfortunately that did not clear up the problem as a follow-up urine test showed a bacteria still present. Our doctor rang my husband with the urine test result and said they would prescribe a different antibiotic.

All seemed to go well and at the end of the course he had another urine test which showed him to be clear of any infection.

Days later he passed blood in his urine and rang the surgery for further instructions and was told a doctor would ring him later in the day.

A doctor - who had a strong accent which my husband found difficult to understand as he is hard of hearing - rang and after a discussion said they would issue a further prescription. My husband wanted to be assured which medication he would be prescribed, and the doctor assured him that the prescription would be for the medication he requested.

We left for the pharmacy and collected it.

On checking it my husband found that the incorrect drug had been prescribed, the one that did not work when he first took antibiotics for this complaint.

He rang our doctor's practice and spoke to a member of staff who was so helpful and understood the problem that had occurred when my husband explained it to them. They said that they would text the doctor immediately to get them to issue the correct prescription and would ring him back once it was done.

This was close to when the pharmacy closes. We drove to the pharmacy in the hope that the prescription could be issued in time to get it that day. Just before going into the pharmacy my husband rang the surgery to speak to the member of staff he had previously spoken to, who answered. They said they had managed to get a reply from the doctor, who admitted that they issued the wrong prescription and would write another one for the correct medication. Half an hour later the member of staff had still had not received any notification from the doctor showing a new prescription had been raised, and the pharmacy closed.

We went home without the prescription. The member of staff rang my husband to advise that the doctor had raised the prescription too late (apparently they could see that on their system) and regretted that he would not be able to start the course until tomorrow morning when the prescription would be with the surgery and would be able to be picked up first thing in the morning.

I am writing to highlight the error of issuing an incorrect prescription, which in my opinion was negligence as the correct tablets were stated and confirmed by the doctor when my husband advised that they were the ones that improved his condition, so one has to query why then were the first antibiotics, that were unresponsive to the problem, issued in a prescription.

Finally I would like to give the highest praise to the member of staff my husband spoke to for their help and persistence in trying their best to arrange for the correct prescription to be raised, not just when it was highlighted to them that the doctor has issued an incorrect prescription but in their persistence in chasing the doctor to issue a revised one, even after the doctor said they had done it but still it did not show on the surgery's system and in fact it had not been done, and only after they chased again was is done too late, as the pharmacy was shut.

Everyone makes errors, including doctors, but this particular antibiotic was spelled out to the doctor who repeated that that was the one they were going to raise the prescription for, yet did not.

The member of staff had spent a lot of their precious time chasing the doctor when I am sure they had many more important tasks to do than to repeatedly chase a doctor for something that should have been done correctly in the first place.

Hereby is my complaint, together with my highest praise for a very efficient member of staff at Shelley Road. I cannot speak highly enough about them for the help they gave my husband.