Doing the drugs run...

[activelysleeping]

Each weekend I pop to my dad's house and sort out his meds for the week ahead. Alas his pharmacy doesn't do blister packs so I do them.

I was sick this week and couldn't get over so I helped him do it over the phone. This was quite stressful and time consuming for both of us!

Later I got served an ad on Facebook for a 1 month pill organiser. Basically you do all 4 weeks together at the same time (instead of week by week). I'd heard anecdotally that some drugs degrade if they're taken out of their original packaging - does anyone know if this is true? My dad primarily takes meds for heart, BP, cholesterol, angina etc.

If I was able to do 4 weeks at a time, this would be a game changer for me! It would also mean that if I couldn't get there, he was fully sorted and we wouldn't need to go through the complicated business of doing it on the phone!

I do 4 weeks for my mum and it's great. I top it up every time I go up so I'm not panicking if visit timings don't work out (not local). Best to check with the pharmacy if it could cause a problem with the specific meds your dad takes.

Have you rung around and asked other pharmacies about blister packs, I found they varied greatly in how helpful they were. We did decant into the dosage boxes my relative was familiar with but it sped up the whole sorting out headache no end.

Am sure most people just fill up the month without a second thought about the tablets being out of their packaging.

We always put my mother’s tablets into a 1 month pill organiser. If you ask the pharmacy they may be able to do this for you.

The stability testing is done in the packaging they come in, so keeping them in that is the only way of ensuring it remains the same. However, the chances of it degrading in 4 weeks is miniscule.
I would maybe check with the pharmacist.
(My cat takes a half tablet every day. It does say in the packaging not to leave it out of the packaging for more than 48 hours.)

Some medicines do need to be kept in their orginal packaging, but not the run of the mill medicines youve referred to. However, I would just ask the pharmacist, they will instantly know and put your mind at ease.

I second ringing around other pharmacies to see if they do blister packs.

There are also some pharmacies that will fill up those Pivotell carousels - the ones with the flashing lights and alarms.

Now others have said it, when we decanted from the blister packs we added in meds which were meant to stay in their packaging, just a couple of weeks at a time. Didn't say earlier as didn't want to recommend this but others have now. There didn't seem to be an issue and it was the only way we could manage it.

Ah thanks everyone! My dad wants to stay with the same pharmacy as it's connected to his GP's surgery and he's a creature of habit. We did try and swop one night and the pharmacy was useless, consistently late and delivering only half supplies etc so we went back to what was known.

I don't mind doing them, it's a 10 minute job max but doing them in 4 week batches would be brilliant. I'll give his pharmacist a ring tomorrow and see if this would cause any issues.