Medicine safety tips: taking, storing and tracking medicines

How do I take medicines safely?

Take each medicine the way your doctor or pharmacist told you, and read the label before every dose. Turn the light on to take or give medicines at night, so you don’t pick up the wrong one.

A few habits prevent most mistakes:

• Know the active ingredient. Two brands can contain the same active ingredient, so taking both can mean a double dose. Ask your pharmacist before adding a medicine to the ones you already take. Paracetamol is one of the most common causes of hospital admission for accidental overdose. Generic medicines explains brands and active ingredients.
• Check before you mix. Ask your pharmacist whether a medicine is safe with alcohol or with the other medicines you take. Some combinations, such as opioids with alcohol or antidepressants, raise the risk of harm.
• Only take your own. A medicine prescribed for someone else, or for a different problem, can be dangerous for you.

The Consumer Medicine Information leaflet for a medicine says how to take it, what to avoid, its side effects, how to store it and what to do if you take too much. It’s in the pack, or ask your pharmacist.

How do I keep track of several medicines?

Keep a list of every medicine you take, with how much and when, what it’s for and when you started it. Include medicines you buy from the pharmacy, supermarket or health food shop, such as vitamins and herbal remedies, and inhalers, patches, creams and drops. Cross off anything you stop and add new medicines as you start them.

Take the list to every appointment with your doctor or pharmacist, and to hospital, and carry a copy in case of an emergency. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has a medicines list you can print or fill in on screen.

If you find it hard to keep doses straight, a pharmacy can help. It can pack your medicines into a dose administration aid sorted by day and time, or go through them with you in a free MedsCheck: what services pharmacies offer has who’s eligible. If cost is the reason you skip doses, ask about a cheaper brand: what a PBS prescription costs has the figures.

Where should I store medicines?

Somewhere cool and dark, away from heat and light. The bathroom cabinet and the kitchen near the cooktop or fridge are the places to avoid. Follow the label for medicines that need to go in the fridge.

To keep everyone in the house safe:

• Store medicines out of sight and reach of children and pets, in a cupboard with a child-resistant lock if you can.
• Keep them in their original containers, closed tightly. Never move medicines into another container, especially a food or drink one.
• Unpack medicines from the shopping as soon as you get home.
• Don’t stockpile. The Therapeutic Goods Administration asks people not to keep large amounts of paracetamol at home.

Children aged 1 to 3 are the most at risk of accidental poisoning. Don’t take your medicines in front of young children, and never call medicines lollies.

What should I do with old or unwanted medicines?

Take them to a pharmacy, which disposes of them for free. Don’t put them in the bin or flush them down the toilet, where they can harm the environment. Keeping them at home risks someone taking one by mistake. How to dispose of old or unwanted medicines covers what the pharmacy takes and what to do with needles.

What if someone takes too much, or the wrong medicine?

If the person is unconscious or not breathing, call Triple Zero (000), ask for an ambulance and start CPR.

Otherwise, call the Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26, at any hour. Don’t wait for symptoms. While you wait:

• don’t make the person vomit
• don’t let them eat or drink until you’ve spoken to the centre
• have the medicine’s box or a photo of its label ready.

If you or someone you live with takes opioids, ask the pharmacy about naloxone. It reverses an opioid overdose, and pharmacies in the Take Home Naloxone program give it free and without a prescription.

Who can I ask about my medicines?

Your pharmacist, without an appointment. Find pharmacies near you, or a 24-hour pharmacy for questions at night. For health advice at any hour, call healthdirect on 1800 022 222.