Getting medicines right

When someone is on more than three or four medicines, the problem is almost never the prescription. It is that a dose was skipped, doubled after a forgotten one, or quietly stopped because a strip ran out.

One box, one time

Keep every medicine in a single container and take it at the same hour each day, anchored to something that already happens — after breakfast, before the evening news. A weekly pill organiser costs very little and makes a missed dose visible instead of invisible.

Keep a written list

Name, strength, how many times a day, and what it is for. Take it to every appointment. Doctors change what they can see, and a patient who has been to three specialists usually has medicines none of them knows about.

Include anything bought without a prescription — painkillers, antacids, ayurvedic preparations, supplements. These interact more often than people expect.

When a dose is missed

Take it if you remember reasonably soon; skip it if the next dose is nearly due. Do not take two together to catch up. If it happens often, that is worth telling the doctor — the schedule may simply be unrealistic.