A WOMAN with mental health problems fears she could have been killed after a pharmacy accidentally gave her a bottle of methadone.

The 34-year-old, who did not wish to be named, was shocked to discover that the drug used to tackle heroin addiction had appeared amongst the medication she received from Rowlands Pharmacy in Toothill.

On Friday, the woman went to the Dunwich Drive store to pick up her usual prescriptions for quetiapine and citalopram, which are used to fight depression and anxiety disorders.

But when she got home she discovered a 30ml bottle of methadone had been included with her medication.

To make matters worse, the bottle had another patient’s personal details printed on the front.

She said: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw that a bottle of methadone had got mixed in with my medication. Something like this should never happen, it is totally unacceptable.”

The woman, who describes herself as having various mental health problems, said she often puts her prescribed drugs into different jars to better organise her medicinal intake. She said she almost put one set of drugs into the methadone bottle, at first not realising what it was.

“Had I put my quetiapine in that bottle of methadone without realising, it could have killed me,” she said.

“My first thought was to get rid of the contents of the bottle as soon as I realised. I just couldn’t believe how the pharmacy could mix up something like that - it’s ridiculous.”

Guidelines on the drug advice website www.drugs.com state: “Using methadone together with quetiapine can increase the risk of an irregular heart rhythm that may be serious and potentially life-threatening, although it is a relatively rare side effect.”

The woman also raised concerns about “data protection” due to another patient’s personal information being printed on the bottle.

“It’s not fair on that patient that their private details have been given to somebody else. I certainly would not have liked it if it had been my details given out.”

Yesterday she visited the pharmacy to demand an explanation, but claimed the staff didn’t want to know.

“They were very dismissive and said that I should have told them if I had seen bottles of methadone lying around.”

Rowland’s Pharmacy confirmed that “a serious complaint” has been received from a patient and that the company is looking into it.

A spokesman said: “Patient safety is our highest priority and a full investigation is underway. We would like to apologise to the patient concerned for any distress caused and will, of course, inform her of the outcome of the investigation.

“Until that is completed it would not be appropriate to comment further.”