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My spouse administered expired medicine

Posted By centaurusyy87

"My spouse administered expired medicine"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a carer),

My spouse was hospitalized in Emergency ward of Fiona Stanley this month. They were under severe coughing, headache and breathing problem. My spouse was administered Ventolin inhaler which has expiry date printed as 09/2024. My spouse took the same medicine for 2 days till we noticed expiry date. We trust hospital so never realize this could happen. My spouse was panic to see this expiry date but i sympathies as no side effect is seen so far.

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 10 months ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 28/10/2024 at 3:40 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 29/10/2024 at 10:28 AM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear centaurusyy87,

Thank you for sharing your feedback, and I am sorry to hear of the distress you and your spouse have experienced.

I’d like to reassure you that receiving out of date Ventolin / any medication would be highly unusual, as we have multiple safety nets in place to ensure no medication administered is past it’s expiry date. For example, when brought to wards (including the Emergency Department) all new and existing stocks of medications are checked by staff and entered onto the Pharmacy Automation System, including expiry dates, to support central monitoring of stock.

In addition, when administering medication our nurses follow an 6-step medication administration process, which includes checking expiry dates.

Ventolin is a frequently used medication in the Emergency Department and as such is very regularly replenished. We have completed a requisition of Ventolin in the Emergency Department today, and can confirm that all Ventolin on hand has an expiry date of 09/2025 – which is more in line with what we would expect.

If you still have the Ventolin we would appreciate if you could take a photo of the packaging including the expiry date and send to FSHFeedback@health.wa.gov.au, with reference to this Care Opinion story, so that we can investigate more fully.

I was heartened to read that your spouse has experienced nil side effects, and I wish them well on their continued recovery.

Kind regards,

Neil Doverty.

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