Pharmacy should take rap says mum - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz
Jim Borowski  |  by www.stuff.co.nz. All rights reserved. 21.11 | 10:15

DISAPPOINTED: Gary and Lisa Leader say the pharmacy, not the technician, should be accountable for giving their daughter, Emma, the wrong drug.

The family of a Palmerston North toddler who nearly died after an anti-psychotic was put into her cough medicine is upset that the technician and not the pharmacy is being held accountable. The technician who made up the prescription for Emma Leader, then two years old, is being taken to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.


Emma fell seriously ill in late January and was admitted to hospital after taking a prescription cough medicine that was shown in ESR tests to contain the anti-psychotic Risperidone.
The technician working at City Health Pharmacy in Palmerston North had been blamed in a Health and Disability Commission investigation and was being taken to the Human Rights Commission, but Emma's mother, Lisa Leader, is disappointed the pharmacist was not charged.
"It's not fair they have held the technician out to dry when it all came down to their procedures and protocols," she said.


"Every pharmacy has a process in place, it's step by step, and theirs went horribly wrong."
Mrs Leader said the anti-psychotic prescription was not collected by the patient and should never have been left on the shelf. The technician had then thrown the empty bottle in the rubbish when it should have gone back into the checking procedure.


City Health Pharmacy owner Hamish Barham said the Health and Disability Commissioner's investigation found the pharmacy and pharmacist not liable and two other audits held their procedures to be "robust".
He said the technician "accidentally" grabbed the wrong bottle, but the biggest mistake had been throwing the empty bottle in the bin so that the pharmacist did not know to check it.
"It showed a sad and awful error because the technician did not follow standard operating procedure.

It's a pretty horrible situation and you've got to feel for the family and the poor technician as well."
The Leader family were also upset that Mr Barham had not contacted them to see how they were doing and failed to send them copies of the audits as promised.
Emma had recovered, but the experience had left her afraid of hospitals, Mrs Leader said.


The Health and Disability Commission is drafting a statement of claim to be sent to the Human Rights Review Tribunal by mid-December, which would probably include compensation.

Read more on by www.stuff.co.nz. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Human Rights, Human Rights Review, Palmerston North, Lisa Leader, Rights Review Tribunal, Disability Commission, Health Pharmacy, City Health, City Health Pharmacy, Review Tribunal
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