medicines and medical supplies

Undervalued

Jenna_Appleseed wrote: »

and according to Skiggle's site old medicines have to be returned to a pharmacy for safe disposal.

"Medicines:
Out of date, un-used and part used medications must be sealed and returned to the pharmacy that dispensed them so that they may be disposed of in accordance with the Hazardous Waste Regulations (2005) in order to protect the environment"

"The act prohibits the mixing of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes, which includes the prohibition of medicines being disposed of with normal household rubbish."

Prescription medications will have been “prescribed for you only. Do not pass it onto others. It may harm them, even if their signs of illness are the same as yours” (medication information leaflet).

(my bold)

Meanwhile in the real world........

Although householders are getting (slightly) better at disposing of things properly there is a huge way to go. Most responsible larger businesses actually do a far better job regarding proper waste disposal than consumers.

GreenQueen

When my dad died, I was horrified to see the amount of unopened medication that had to be returned to the pharmacy. He was of the generation who stockpile at any opportunity.

My mum is the same, and encouraging her to miss a month or two of repeat prescriptions to get down to a reasonable level fall on deaf ears (at best) or bring on a serious lecture about how she doesn't want to run out of anything.

Undervalued

GreenQueen wrote: »

When my dad died, I was horrified to see the amount of unopened medication that had to be returned to the pharmacy. He was of the generation who stockpile at any opportunity.

My mum is the same, and encouraging her to miss a month or two of repeat prescriptions to get down to a reasonable level fall on deaf ears (at best) or bring on a serious lecture about how she doesn't want to run out of anything.

Surely though, unless they were stockpiling by taking less than the prescribed doses, the doctor is a fault by prescribing an unnecessary amount?

GreenQueen

Undervalued wrote: »

Surely though, unless they were stockpiling by taking less than the prescribed doses, the doctor is a fault by prescribing an unnecessary amount?

I think things got out of sync when he spent some time in hospital - unfortunately that came with his age, and my mum has similar.