In this specific case, because the consultant explained the prescription to me verbally, and while I was walking round to the hospital pharmacy, I worked out in my head what the net result should be from the pharmacy - it matched!

Agree that in general, though, there is a difficulty in ensuring prescriptions match the doctor's wishes. Even in printed ones - e.g. I've had problems where my GP has picked the right drug but the wrong form (suspension instead of tablet, for example) - and it's not always easy to get that changed without going back to the GP.

Oh, that's exactly the systematic error that I need! Every time I get an antibiotic that isn't flucloxacillin I end up with big round tablets that I can't swallow and sometimes end up ringing NHS direct to get another prescription for the same thing in liquid form so I can actually take it.

The irony here is that, until quite recently, I couldn't bring myself to swallow tablets. It was after having a course of flucloxacillin last year, taking as 'medicine', and having to keep the bottles in the fridge, back and forth to work etc, that I realised I really needed to try to learn to take tablets!

The big round ones do seem to be the hardest pills to swallow; still not really comfortable with those.