Will a pharmacist organise medication and how?

scooby75

My missus is back from hospital and is now on 28 tablets a day (hopefully soon to drop down to 20), all taken at different times at different doses.

I've tried organising it all as best I can for the week but to be honest it's driving me mad and taking ages (plus the biggest pill organiser I could find just isn't big enough).

I've heard that some pharmacies will organise your drugs for you - is this true? If so will they only organise what they themselves dispense or can you take tablets that you already have?

kingfisherblue

I think they will only organise any tablets that they provide, but it is definitely worth doing. My mum has to take a variety of tablets, some once a day, some up to four times a day, and one is only once a week. She spoke to the chap at our local Lloyd's Pharmacy and he arranged for my mum to receive her medication in blister packs. Each pack is for one week, and is labelled for each day. Within each day there are sections for morning, lunchtime, evening and night. The tablets are already in each individual 'blister' when she receives them and she just has to pop open the appropriate blister and take her medication.

Lloyds also ring her each month (about a week before her next set of four packs are due) to check to see if there have been any changes to her medication and to see if she needs anything else delivering (they will deliver small items from the pharmacy and mum pays the driver - don't know if this is just our branch, or if all Lloyd's do this). They then confirm that they will deliver the following Friday. The pharmacy order the prescription and sort everything out. My mum doesn't need to do anything.

It has really helped my mum, as she was bothered about becoming confused with the different tablets and when to take them. The service is free and she benefits greatly from it.

i just wish it was that easy for my son, but as most of his medications are liquid (due to severe feeding difficulties) it just isn't possible. It would make life a lot easier though!

kurgon

You have to ask her GP to prescirbe it in this form, but it's common practice.

kingfisherblue

My mum didn't have to ask her GP, but I appreciate that it might be required in some areas.

HOWMUCH

It's called NOMAD system your GP has to be willing to issue tablets in 7 days supply most GP's are willing to do this. Just go along and have a chat.

formaldehyde_perfume

It's a great system, but my GP won't prescribe it for me at all. She thinks I'm not taking responsibility for my medication by doing it but I can't cope with organising my medications myself so my mum does it but it's really difficult and takes hours which could be spent doing so many other things for me *sigh* - It's worth asking though, you might have more luck than me.

gardenia101

It does cost the GP more to prescribe medicines as 4x7 days as opposed to 1x28 days, but for the quantity of tablets the OP is talking about I doubt any GP would refuse. I would start first with the pharmacy & make sure they can take on any extra patients as these systems are more time consuming & space consuming than ordinary prescriptions & some pharmacies are limited to how many patients they can supply in this way.

ETA - NOMAD is just one system - there are quite a few different ones at different pharmacies.

formaldehyde_perfume

gardenia101 wrote: »

but for the quantity of tablets the OP is talking about I doubt any GP would refuse.

I take between 20 and 25 a day, sometimes up to 30, my GP won't do it for me.

System

op rather than a tablet box try looking for a craft box ,they can have bigger compartments and more of them .

Humphrey10

Boots will organise the tablets for you, I've seen leaflets about it:
http://www.boots.com/wcsstore/cmsassets/Boots/Library/Assets/PDF/CaringMadeEasier/MedisureLeaflet/MedisureLeaflet.pdf

It doesn't mention having to get a special prescription.

Humphrey10

formaldehyde_perfume wrote: »

my GP won't do it for me.

Ask a different GP. Some GPs have strange ideas/views on things, you might find that a different one is supportive of the idea.

If I was on 30 tablets a day I'd find it very helpful to be able to get them pre-organised / sorted by the pharmacist.