The General Pharmaceutical Council is investigating Boots after a pharmacy error led to the death of an 84-year-old great-grandfather. Richard 'Tony' Lee from Doncaster died in December 2016 after receiving duplicate packs of his prescription medication.
Mr Lee was meant to receive four weekly packs of pills each month for heart, kidney and anxiety conditions. However, after his death, his daughter Gail Pickles discovered double the expected number of packs, indicating he had taken a double dose. An inquest in June found that when responsibility for the prescription was transferred to a new pharmacy, the original pharmacy failed to cancel its order, resulting in two sets of the same prescription being sent.
Assistant coroner Louise Slater ruled that the excess dosing increased the risk of a cardiac event and was a contributory factor in Mr Lee's death. She noted that policies and procedures were in place but were not followed due to an individual failing rather than a systemic failure.
Boots has apologised to the family, but Mrs Pickles said she was 'appalled' by the company's actions, particularly an internal report that stated Mr Lee did not need medical attention and the incident did not need to be escalated. She also found that the medication packs were not properly labelled, which could have alerted her father to the error.
Boots described the circumstances as 'extremely rare' and said it has an extremely low error rate. It has offered to meet Mrs Pickles and acknowledged it should have provided a written apology sooner.
