A PENSIONER is recovering today after his condition worsened when pharmacy staff gave him the wrong medication.

Rebecca Lefort

A PENSIONER is recovering today after his condition worsened when pharmacy staff gave him the wrong medication.

Stroke victim Charles Bartley was unknowingly taking strong anti-depressants for two weeks, instead of the water tablets he should have been taking.

It was only when his health began to deteriorate that the mistake was found out.

The 79-year-old, has needed to take a cocktail of medication since he suffered a stroke nine years ago.

The drugs normally made him better so when his health deteriorated his daughter, Sue Dixon, rechecked all the packets and found the right label, for water tablets Furosemide, had been put on the wrong packet, strong anti-depressants.

She said many of the problems Mr Bartley, of Elm Road, Kesgrave, was experiencing, were usual side-effects of the anti-depressants, Citalopram, which he had been given by the Tesco Metro pharmacy in Kesgrave on April 30.

The mum-of-two added: “Within about two days of taking them he was suffering. Mum had checked the tablets but they had the right label on so she didn't notice they were wrong.

“After two weeks he wasn't well so I had a check and saw he had been taking the wrong tablets.

“He had suffered headaches, he was being sick, he was very tired and drowsy and felt agitated and nervous.”

As soon as the mistake was discovered Mr Bartley, a former civil servant, came off the tablets but his daughter said he now needs more care from her and her 76-year-old mum Eileen.

Mrs Dixon, 49, who lives in Goring Road but has been staying with her parents since the problems began, said: “He could walk with assistance before. He is now in a wheelchair with 24-hour care.

“It should never have happened. It is not like they are selling shoes and it is an odd pair of shoes.

“Mistakes are made but my main concern is that nobody else suffers the same fate.”

A spokesman for Tesco said: “We unreservedly apologise to Mr Bartley who we have been in touch with following the results of our investigation.

“We have extensive processes in place supported by appropriate training to avoid this sort of thing from occurring but it's clear that they had temporarily broken down here.

“We're upset with ourselves as this should not have happened and we have been at pains to address each step of the process at the store again and each team member is being re-briefed.

“We'd like to reassure customers we are completely committed to an efficient and reliable pharmacy service and that they can have confidence in us to provide this.”

Have you been given a wrong prescription? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.