Seamus McBrien, pictured with the drugs he says were given to him by staff at the South West Acute Hospital
A HOSPITAL patient who was handed the wrong medication, including drugs for Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis, has spoken of his grave concern over the medical blunder.
Enniskillen man, Seamus McBrien was admitted to the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) last Tuesday after he started to suffer from stomach pain.
The Cavanaleck man brought his blood-pressure tablets to the hospital. He gave these to staff while he was being tended to.
It later emerged that he required treatment for a kidney stone as well as suffering a hernia.
The SWAH discovered the medication error after an unknown staff member later contacted Mr McBrien, asking him to return to the hospital to collect his prescription drugs.
It wasn’t until hours later when Mr McBrien’s son returned home with the medication that he made the shock discovery.
“I looked into the bag and saw six bottles of drugs with these strange prescriptions written on them, but with no name,” he explained.
“My son went to the hospital to collect my tablets and then, when he brought them home and opened the bag, we found medication that had no name written on it, just what they were and how often to take them.
“If that was an elderly person and took them home, it would be very dangerous. It’s desperate that this has been allowed to happen.”
Mr McBrien went on: “I can’t believe a hospital can just do this and mix up my medication with another patient. I am just concerned about the person behind me who may not be so lucky and not read the labels and just assume that it is for them. It’s not good enough.
“I thought that medication has to go through the pharmacy and be checked, but the tablets came down with no name and then thrown into a bag. It’s negligent of the person who did this and for the person who is supposed to sign it off.
“I don’t know how they allowed it to happen. They looked after me well in there, but I’m just not happy with this.”
He said he had contacted the media to make staff aware so that this situation didn’t happen again.”
Mr McBrien believes the medical error posed a health risk, and said he was lucky he read the drug bottles before assuming they were prescribed to him.
A spokesman for the Western Health and Social Care Trust said: “Respecting patient confidentiality, the Trust does not comment on individual cases.
“If a patient or their relative has any issue in relation to their treatment, we would encourage them to raise these issues through the trust’s comments and complaints system – the Patients’ Advocate Office. “
The Patients’ Advocate Office can be contacted on 028 7161 1226. All complaints received are investigated promptly and a response issued to the person making the complaint as soon as possible.
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