It is always recommended that important medication is not put in the hold luggage - so not sure how you will get on with any claim. As the list of medication was also in the hold luggage things don't look good at all.

Pippa

Hi Pippa, to clarify this case was 'hand luggage' which was taken on the aircraft. However the bus driver insisted it had to be placed in the luggage compartment of the bus so they had no choice.

Regarding the bag - any bag - going missing when placed in the the bus luggage space on the instructions of the driver, First Choice must have some liability, but this will depend on what happened and previous events. If for instance, it had been stolen just as the driver got on board or as it pulled up at a drop-off beofre your parents' and there is a history of this happening you could argue they should take more care. If it had been taken accidentally, it's stuck at reception of another hotel and no-one is arranging transfer you could also argue they should be better organised. But if this was a one-off opportunistic theft by another passenger you'd have less of a case. Your problem is before you can argue this properly you need the full facts and I suspect you'll never get them. Which is why theft insurance is always useful.

And then we have the seperate issue of coming home early because they couldn't remember the list of medication. They aren't going to accept liability for this without a fight and court action and I'd say they have a strong case of winning. The doctor that FC arranged could issue prescriptions and if told what was needed could, presumably, have got replacements for the missing items. All it needed was a fax from the GP at home. This would have been easier to arrange than flights home, and if the medication was so urgent would have avoided the 4 day delay. So how do you argue against them in court? If the list had been faxed through and the local doctor said something wasn't available then you'd have a case.

Before anyone suggests it, the Data Protection Act would not stop a GP passing details to another doctor treating a patient somewhere else.

I think I'm with you on this one, Steve. The list of medication that my mother takes is nearly as long as your arm and she always carries a copy of her official repeat precription listing with her in her purse at all times. We have had to obtain prescriptions for her on holiday at various times (the notable one being the time when my Dad left the 'pill tower' with the daily pill intake pre-sorted in to it on the kitchen table instead of putting it in his hand luggage bag) and we've never had a problem getting a local doctor to then issue a prescription. In one instance the doctor phoned her GP to confirm the dosage of one of her drugs (from memory it was because the dosage per pill differed between here and there) and the info was readily forthcoming.

Another, possibly more important reason, for always having a list of any regular medication on you is so that in the event of you needing any treatment for any reason whilst on holiday (or at home for that matter) you can provide the attending doctor with all the info on what you are already taking so that they can check for any contra-indications etc before prescribing another medication for you. My mother keeps her's in her purse on the grounds that if she is unconscious that's probably the first place they'd look in an attempt to try and indentify her and that when they found her credit card they'd find her prescription list too.

I would expect FC to argue that there were other ways of getting the medication issue sorted that didn't require an early return home from Spain - it might have been different if they were in a country were you couldn't rely on there being a ready supply of decent pharmaceuticals being available - and that they won't accept that as a reason for compensating your parents for the remaining days of the holiday. They might be able to claim from their holiday insurance any additional expense incurred in returning home early but I don't think that they would pay out for the lost days either.

SM

As you say SMa, it's always advisable to take a repeat prescription with you

Sorry your parents' holiday was spoiled but I have to agree with other posters. Yes, FC have some liability with regard to the missing case but this could have also been claimed for off the travel insurance. As for the medications, as others have said, the doctor could have prescribed the necessary medication had he known what it was - and contact with the home GP could have confirmed this.

I don't really hold out much hope of FC compensating them for having to return home early - as said above, they could have got the list of medications required and there would have been no problem.

As for knowing what medication you are on, I would agree that it is most important to know what you are on and to keep the list on your person. My other half was taken ill abroad and would have been incapable of telling the doctors what medication he was on. I always kept a list in my purse so that I could advise them.

Jak xx

hi.... cant understand why driver insisted what was hand luggage being put in with other luggage. If it was OK for taking on a plane it should have been OK for taking on a bus....after all its the bag we use for our most valuable possessions like jewelery cash passports ect....and is called hand luggage as its small enough and easy enough to be kept with us....to protect it from going astray or being stolen....I have a suspicious mind and think it would be an easy way of parting someone from the best bags to steal....and the easiest to carry off with the knowledge that it is the bag the small valuable items are going to be in...I would have refused to hand it over to anyone, and phoned the holiday company for an explanation....tweetie

ps...insurance might argue it was put at risk by allowing it out of your control

TWEETIE PIE wrote:

hi.... cant understand why driver insisted what was hand luggage being put in with other luggage. If it was OK for taking on a plane it should have been OK for taking on a bus....after all its the bag we use for our most valuable possessions like jewelery cash passports ect....and is called hand luggage as its small enough and easy enough to be kept with us....to protect it from going astray or being stolen....I have a suspicious mind and think it would be an easy way of parting someone from the best bags to steal....and the easiest to carry off with the knowledge that it is the bag the small valuable items are going to be in...I would have refused to hand it over to anyone, and phoned the holiday company for an explanation....tweetie

ps...insurance might argue it was put at risk by allowing it out of your control

Hi TWEETIE PIE ... First Choice allow hand luggage measuring up to 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. What may fit comfortably into the overhead locker on an aircraft may not necessarily fit comfortably or safely into the overhead rack on a coach and so it may be expected to be placed in the luggage hold instead. It's something to bear in mind when packing valuable or fragile items into those 'larger' pieces of hand luggage.

David

it should have been OK for taking on a bus....after all its the bag we use for our most valuable possessions like jewelery cash passports ect....and is called hand luggage as its small enough and easy enough to be kept with us....

David beat me to it - as he points out the problem is that a lot of handluggage isn't actually that small at all. The measurements that he gives equate to approx 2 cubic ft in volume and EasyJet's allowance of 56x45x25 is nearer 3 cubic ft of volume - bigger than will fit on most coach overhead shelves (they dont even fit easily in the overhead racks on trains) or on your knee whilst sat on a coach seat.

It's bad enough trying to find enough space in the overhead lockers on the plane if everybody is making use of their maximum allowance and the space on a coach shelf is much less. I wouldn't immediately assume that anything sinister is going on - it's just as likely likely that a shortage of space was the issue.

SM

hi...didnt realise the bag size allowed was so big....I was thinking of the small holdalls ect we take...never flown FC....good idea to remember what happened to OP.... and if using big hand luggage to put valuable and important stuff in a small holdall inside the big one...then if you had to put it in the bus's luggage hold you could just take the smaller one out and take it on the bus with you....tweetie

hi...didnt realise the bag size allowed was so big....I was thinking of the small holdalls ect we take

I know - it was only when I was needing to maximise the amount I could take with me to Cuba and was measuring up cases/bags in order to work out how much I could get away with as 'hand' luggage that I realised just how big a case I was allowed to legitimately carry on after all. So I did exactly as you suggest - put all the essential/valuable stuff inside a small bag that could be kept to hand at all times but left just enough room in the case to shove it in for going through security and for actual boarding.

SM

A copy of your perscription is a must at all times, I learnt this two years ago with the ash cloud after the house keeper through one lot of my pills away after leaving them in the bathroom and then got an extra 8 days holiday because of the ash (O happy days ) but walked into a chemist and came out with what I needed because of having the perscription with me. Good point about the bag sizes with coaches

I won't comment on this particular case but several years ago I came across something similar of someone who had "lost" his medication. Rather than return him early the TO - and I think it was Thomson/First Choice arranged for a set of his medications to be flown out. It was delivered to the airport and carried by a member of staff who then passed it to the rep to be given to him.

fwh

Many thanks for all of your comments it's appreciated.
I would just like to say that there was no FC rep at the hotel or in fact in the resort. The hotel reception desk gave my parents a tel number for the UK. At no time did they get offered local assistance or were they offered help to get a copy of the prescription or duplicate medication. Being elderly they didn't know what to do and as my Father was feeling ill they did what they thought best. All of which by the sound of things could have been avoided.

steve8482 wrote:

Before anyone suggests it, the Data Protection Act would not stop a GP passing details to another doctor treating a patient somewhere else.

Yes ... As long as the communicating Doctors can confirm their creds and that the patient has a problem, then the needs of the patient come first.... Take the case of peeps coming back to the UK from abroad with injuries... as long as the patient agrees, then the "sharing" of info is OK

ATB,J.

I can imagine how awful it was. Anyway good luck!