Man found dead after pharmacy worker raised alarm over missed methadone
A Stoke-on-Trent man was found dead after a pharmacy staff member raised concerns that he had not collected his methadone prescription.
Andrew Kipling was found dead after accuracy checking technician (ACT) Lyndsey Scott alerted police when he failed to collect his methadone prescription, she told C+D last week (June 12).
Police found Kipling, who was aged 47, dead in his home in Stoke-on-Trent on November 16 2023, according to a coroner’s report.
Scott, who works at Cornwell’s Chemist in Stoke-on-Trent, said that he “had been coming [to the pharmacy] for a long time” and that she knew him well.
She added that she had taken a few days off and when she returned, other staff mentioned that Kipling had not visited the pharmacy.
“He’d never miss his script”
Scott said that Kipling “would never miss his script” and so “straight away” she thought something must have happened.
She looked through the CCTV footage and saw that he had last come in a few days before, and “seemed fine”.
Scott immediately called the police and told them she was concerned because he hadn’t been in to collect his prescription.
She added that when the landlord let them into the property, they “found him dead on the floor”.
Whole team “looked after him”
Scott said that Kipling and his brother had been coming to the pharmacy “for years” but after his brother passed away, the whole pharmacy team “looked after him” since he didn’t have any family nearby.
The inquest was heard by coroner Daniel Howe and concluded last week (June 10).
It reported that Kipling “was found deceased at his home address due to toxicity caused by ingesting pregabalin that had not been prescribed along with alcohol and the prescribed medications of methadone, sertraline and zopiclone”.
It comes after a coroner raised concerns in February that pharmacies have “no apparent obligation” to report when a patient stops collecting methadone, after a man died when a pharmacy’s warnings were ignored.
