If you have been asked to bring your medicines with you into hospital your nurse will ask you for them when you arrive. Please hand these over and they will be locked in a medicine cabinet next to your bed for your use only.
Please inform your nurse if you have any steroid, diabetic, anticoagulant or donor cards.
Staff will administer medications at the time prescribed on the chart. This may be slightly different form your usual time.
During your stay a pharmacist, pharmacy technician or both may visit you. They will look at your drug chart and may ask you some questions about your medicines.
While you are in hospital, your doctor may prescribe an unlicensed medicine for you because he feels it is the best treatment for you. An unlicensed medicine is one, that for a variety of reasons, does not have an official UK product licence like most medicines in the UK.
If you have any questions about this or any of your other medication, please ask the pharmacist for more details.
On discharge from hospital:
- Your doctor will write a prescription and discharge letter to your GP informing him/her of the details of the medication you are being discharged with
- You will be given at least one week’s supply of medication according to your prescription. Please say if you have any medication at home. In some cases
you will be given a sufficient quantity to complete a course of treatment e.g. antibiotics and painkillers.
It may take some time to prepare your medication in pharmacy so please be patient. There will be no prescription charges.
When your medication is sent to the ward, the nurse, pharmacist or pharmacy technician will explain what each is for, how to take it and for how long, and the side effects to watch out for. If there is anything you do not understand then please ask. There will be a ‘Patient Information Leaflet’ inside each box of medicine. This will give you more information about the medicine and its side effects. Please read this leaflet carefully.
When you will go home you must contact your GP to obtain further supplies of regular medication before you run out.
Please note that if you take illegal drugs whilst on hospital premises you may be reported to the police
