Suzanne: Keeping a medicines list – In case of emergencies (1)
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Suzanne
Age at interview: 76
Number of medicines: 6
Cultural background: British (Caucasian)
Suzanne was recently in the situation of having to go to a hospital that could not access her medical records from the usual hospital she attends. Her family know about her medicines list in case of an emergency.
When I went in, I've always kept a medical history and added to it. I mean, I updated it the other day, because when I was taken into the [hospital] and was taken into ICU, the specialist that came to see me, I gave them my list and she said, ‘That is the best thing that anybody could do, because we have no records of you and we can't get them up from [another hospital] at this time of night'. So I'd always take it, wherever I go. If I'm going away, I'll take it all with me, in case ... I mean, I have to remember at my age. If I collapse, my family all know that this is my ... to hand this to whoever’s dealing with me, because...in fact, a lot of them have kept them, whenever I've been to the hospital, when I went in for my wrist, they kept it! But I've always got it on file, so I can just print it off again, but um … I think it's something that everybody should do.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.