Medicine Top Tips

1. Ask your Pharmacist if you have any questions concerning the medicines of the person for whom you care.
2. Both the carer and the person being supported should carry a card listing the details of all medications the person being supported is taking, just in case they are suddenly taken into hospital.
3. Keep a Lions ‘message in a bottle’ in the fridge. This is a small container in which information can be stored about the medical condition, medication, allergies, and emergency contact details for each person in the household. This will ensure that in the case of emergency, ambulance, police and fire and rescue service staff have vital information. If you don’t have one of these, they can be obtained from your local pharmacist.
4. Even if your relative is in a care home, it is worth being present at GP visits and keeping abreast of the medication he/she is being given.
5. If you have concerns regarding the administration of medication for your relative when they are in a care home, contact the Care Quality Commission.
6. If someone is taking medication from more than one source – for example, a prescription from the hospital consultant as well as the GP, over the counter medication, homoeopathic or herbal remedies – it is important to check with a pharmacist that it is safe to do so.
7. If someone is prescribed a course of medication, you should not discontinue the course for any reason, without first checking with the pharmacist and/or doctor. Always return unwanted or out of date medicines to your local pharmacy for disposal.
8. Anyone who receives regular medication and whose condition is stable can ask their GP and/or pharmacist about ‘Repeat Dispensing’, which will enable you to collect a year’s worth of prescriptions directly from their pharmacist without having to return to the doctor (but this must be agreed with the GP).

If in doubt ……..ASK YOUR PHARMACIST!!