PLEASE BRING ALL YOUR CURRENT PRESCRIPTION & NON-PRESCRIPTION* MEDICATIONS WITH YOU TO ALL YOUR APPOINTMENTS

 

This is necessary for the following reasons:

 

• Safety

Most medications have numerous potential side-effects. Thankfully most of these side-effects are rare and will never affect you. In most cases, these side-effects only affect a very small percentage of people who take them. Perhaps the reason you are unwell is because of one of your medications.

“In Australia, adverse drug effects are estimated to affect 10.4 per cent of patients treated by general practitioners a year, with 18,000 dying as a result”. Sydney Morning Herald Friday 7th May 2010

 

• To Prevent Drug Interactions

Because you may be suffering from more than one medical condition, you may be taking more than one medication. Not infrequently, medications prescribed for one medical condition may affect the treatment of another medical condition. Also, medications may interact with each other. Such interactions may prevent them from working properly. Alternatively, it may lead to toxic levels of one of the medications. 

 

• Keeping Track

There are literally thousands of prescription and non-prescription medications available in Australia. Many of these are available in numerous forms (e.g. generic and non-generic) each with its own name, packaging, colour, shape and size.

 

• The Clue to the Presence of Other Medical Conditions

Just knowing what medications you are taking may alert your doctor to the presence of a condition from which you suffer. For example, if you are taking Thyroxine, you probably suffer from an underactive thyroid gland.

 

• Co-ordinating Your Medical Care

Changes to your medications may be made by your GP or any of the Specialists you may be seeing at any time.  The most effective way of keeping everyone up to date with precisely what medications you are taking at any given time is for you to always bring them with you to each and every appointment. The more medications you take, the more important this becomes.  If your pharmacist provides you with a “Webster Pack”, please always bring it with you to your appointment.  This is also critically important when you are attending hospital, a hospital Emergency Department in particular.

 

Thank you for remembering to bring all your medications with you so that we can work together to provide you with the right treatment

 

* Vitamins, minerals, supplements, Chinese herbs, “slimming” preparations etc...