Patients at Risk: The Unseen Danger in Medicine Dispensing

Sacubitril (ARNI) is a vital medicine for heart failure. A patient was sent to buy it from outside with a prescription slip. The pharmacist gave Sodicarb instead. These are two completely different types of medicines.

The patient's son told the pharmacist, “The dosage doesn’t match. The doctor prescribed 50 mg, and you gave 600 mg.” The pharmacist gave a fantastic reply—he said, “The doctor made a mistake. Instead of writing 600 mg, he mistakenly wrote 50 mg. This medicine doesn’t come in 50 mg at all.” Poor fellow, what could he do? He brought that medicine.

Luckily, the mistake came to our notice and we could send it back to be replaced. But imagine if we had written this same medicine on the discharge paper. And the patient kept taking Sodicarb every day. Can you even imagine?

Here’s another incident from just today. The patient was sent to buy Ancor (2.5 mg) but was given Fincor (10 mg). The patient was told, “This medicine doesn’t come in 2.5 mg, only 10 mg exists.” Yet one is a beta blocker, and the other is a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist.

I’m only mentioning today’s cases. There are so many more like these…

A patient was prescribed Empagliflozin for heart failure. The pharmacist asked, “Do you have diabetes?” The patient replied, “No.” “See, the doctor has given you a diabetes medicine,” said the pharmacist. Patients usually have blind faith in pharmacists. So the patient stopped taking the medicine. Didn’t take it again. Result? Repeated hospitalizations.

The same incident has happened many times with patients who have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). When they are prescribed Metformin, the pharmacists scare them saying it’s a diabetes medicine.

Moxaclav 375 mg was prescribed—it’s an antibiotic. Seeing the “375,” the pharmacist gave Xenol 375, which is a strong painkiller. And said, “The doctor made a mistake. He wrote to take it three times a day by accident. This is a twice-a-day medicine.”

Someone taking high blood pressure medicine had their BP under control at 110/70 mmHg. The pharmacist asked, “Are you still taking medicine?” The patient said yes. The pharmacist reacted with panic: “At this pressure, if you keep taking medicine, you’ll die!” Who will explain to that pharmacist that the BP is under control because of the medication the patient is regularly taking? Because of that scare, the patient stopped the medicine. Later came back with a BP of 220/120 mmHg.

A child had just one day of diarrhea. Believe it or not, the pharmacist gave five antibiotics! For a little personal profit, these people don’t even hesitate to harm a child.

Some pharmacists commit crimes worse than terrorism. In secret, due to their ignorance, vulgarity, and slimy greed, they cause such severe harm to patients—it’s unimaginable. If we don’t stand against them, the public will continue to suffer silently. The harm to patients will keep happening again and again.

— Maruf Raihan Khan
Physician
Cardiologist