Decision report 201203444

Summary

Ms C said she was discharged from hospital and issued with medication. She complained that she had visited her GP nine days later to ask for a further prescription but he had told her that the hospital discharge form said she had been issued with sufficient medication on discharge. To check this, the practice called the hospital and a nurse confirmed that Ms C had been issued with the quantities of tablets stated on the discharge form. The GP, therefore, refused to issue her with a prescription.

Ms C phoned the ward and spoke to a nurse who told her that the amount of tablets she had received on discharge had been wrongly recorded and that the nurse would phone the GP to explain the mistake and ask him to issue her with a prescription. We did not uphold the complaint about the practice, as we found that the health board had accepted full responsibility for the error on the discharge form and that the GP had acted reasonably and appropriately.