What happens when I come in?

When you come to hospital please remember to bring all the medicines you normally take, including over-the-counter drugs and herbal remedies. This will help with your medication review and ensure continuity of supply.

Patients from the local south central England region will be asked to use a special green bag to bring their medicines from home into hospital. The same standard green bags will be used for moving your medicines to clinics and to GPs and pharmacies when you have a medicines review.

On the ward you will meet the clinical pharmacist or the medicine liaison technician.

They will ask you questions about medication you are taking, and may ask to look at the packages. They do this to make sure you are taking the right drugs, and to make sure that anything else you are prescribed will work with your existing medication.

You will see the clinical pharmacist or the medicine liaison technician every weekday during your stay in hospital. Feel free to ask them any questions about the drugs you are taking.

When you leave hospital you will be supplied with at least two weeks' worth of medication to take home. Medicines supplied in this way do not carry any prescription charge.

The dispensed medicines will be checked by an accredited member of the pharmacy staff and brought to you on the ward by a nurse or the pharmacist. You will not need to go to the dispensary yourself.