HDC

A GP advised a woman her father would not be eligible for an assisted death without a formal competence test  

A pharmacist has been criticised by the Health and Disability Commissioner for failing to conduct proper checks when dispensing a blister pack, resulting in a patient being given the wrong doses of blood pressure medication

Issues ranging from a GP’s software problems to COVID restrictions saw a man’s cancer diagnosis delayed and eventually require the removal of a finger and 24 lymph nodes and radiation therapy

The Health and Disability Commissioner has ruled against a locum GP who failed to carry out necessary follow-ups with a woman with a rare genetic disorder who reported complications after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. She died four days later

The Health and Disability Commissioner has found a pharmacy breached a patient’s rights by mistakenly dispensing him another patient’s prescription for the Parkinson disease medication Sinemet

The Health and Disability Commissioner has ruled against two GPs for inappropriately issuing medical certificates for COVID-19 vaccine mandate exemptions

A coding error followed by “a series of assumptions” has left the mother of a stillborn child demanding accountability and three healthcare providers blaming each other  

The Health and Disability Commissioner has found two psychiatric social workers breached the rights of a man who was suffering from schizophrenia and took his own life in 2016 

A pharmacist who mistakenly dispensed the wrong inflammatory bowel medication at a time when her pharmacy was short-staffed has been criticised by the Health and Disability Commissioner

A patient died from pulmonary disease after using nitrofurantoin for 28 months. During that time no health professionals warned the man about the risks, Jonathan Chilton-Towle reports