Stockport NHS Foundation Trust medicine leads have joined a Greater Manchester-wide campaign to ask patients to bring their own medicines in from home when they are coming into hospital.

Hospitals across Greater Manchester (GM) have launched a campaign called ‘Your Medicines Matter’ to remind patients to bring their medicines with them when they come into hospital for an appointment, are admitted or need to go to A&E.

This includes Stepping Hill Hospital, the Bluebell Transfer to Assess Unit at the Meadows hospital,  and the Devonshire Centre for Neuro-rehabilitation, which are run by the trust. 

The region’s hospitals are making the ‘Your Medicines Matter’ plea to improve safety and provide a better experience for patients. It is important that patients bring in medicines from home because this will:

• help hospital staff decide on the best and safest treatments             
• allow patients to continue taking medicines they recognise  
• reduce waste and the cost of hospitals reissuing medicines patients already have
• help reduce delays when patients are going home

If patients cannot bring their medicines when they are first admitted, for example if they have come in as an emergency, relatives or carers will be asked to bring medicines in when they visit.

By ‘medicines’, the hospitals mean anything that has been bought from pharmacies or supermarkets and patients are taking or using, as well as medicines that have been prescribed such as tablets, capsules, liquids, creams, inhalers, drops, injections and patches. It is also important the medicine is in the original packaging where possible.

Staff at hospitals will check the medicines patients bring in with them. If they are safe to use, they will be stored securely along with any other medication patients may need. When leaving hospital, staff will ensure patients have at least a seven-day supply of medicines to go home with.

Paul Buckley, Chief Pharmacist for Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said, “When patients bring their own medicines into hospital it helps us to get a quick and accurate picture of everything they are taking or using. It’s good to remind patients of this so they can take them in, and help to ensure we can provide them with the best, safest and most appropriate care.”

As well as helping to improve safety, if more patients remember to bring medicines from home it also reduces the cost of supplying duplicate medicines and reduces some of the region’s medicine waste. This also contributes to reduce the carbon footprint of the medicines, by using what has already been prescribed and purchased.