Gordon: Going to hospital – Seeing a clinical pharmacologist
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Gordon
Male
Age at interview: 73
Number of medicines: 13
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Gordon had all of his medicines reviewed when he was in hospital to have a kidney removed and later discussed these changes with his GP. He knows that this was beneficial because of the positive test results he later had.
Gordon:
The one hospital, the one ... that fellow who signed that ... he did this sheet and he took me off different ones and that was the very latest one. That was done four days after I had my kidney taken out, that particular one. That's without all the crosses and highlights and that on it. That's what I left the hospital with, that amount to take.
Jacqueline:
So he was looking at your whole medication regimen?
Gordon:
Mmm.
Jacqueline:
Yeah and did you find that made a difference?
Gordon:
Yes, it did. Yeah.
Jacqueline:
Yeah. In what ways?
Gordon:
Well that way, we could isolate which I really needed and which I didn't need. With my local doctor, he'd bring it up on the computer and we'd go through them again and he'd look at the blood tests and things like that, and see what's going on. Because the blood tests tell you a lot when it comes to your pills. I think it was a good move ...
Jacqueline:
Did you find that big change in your medication regimen easy or difficult to manage, when you came home? How was that ... that transformation for you?
Gordon:
No. I was glad of it. I was glad that it was happening and I was all for it. My way of thinking, right from day one, has been the least medication I can take, the better. If I can help cure something by eating half an avocado, I will. But it's not always that simple, of course
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.