4 March 2005

With more than 70% of Australians taking medicines at any one time and 140,000 hospital admissions per year possibly related to problems with medicines, it is important for everyone to get to know their medicines.

Medicines have an important role in maintaining health for many people but unless we use them wisely and safely there is the potential for them to do more harm than good.

It is important for you to talk with your GP and pharmacist about your medicines. Sometimes, living in a rural area can mean it is hard to get access to a health professional easily, and even when you do, it is difficult to know what you should be telling them, and questions you should ask.

To help you get to know your medicines, National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) has resources available and activities taking place around rural Australia.

Top ways to get to know your medicines:

• Pick up a copy of Medimate. Medimate will help you to know all the things you need to know about your medicines, and what you should discuss with a doctor or pharmacist. You can get Medimate in most pharmacies, some doctors surgeries, or order them online at www.nps.org.au/consumers.

• Contact NPS Medicines Line by telephoning 1300 888 763 between 9am and 6pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) for the cost of a local call. Medicines Line is a telephone information service that can give you confidential, independent information about your medicines. When you call Medicines Line you will be speaking to qualified pharmacists who can give you general information such as:
• • Side effects
  • Interactions with other medicines
  • How your medicine works
  • How to take your medicine
  • Any impact the medicine may have on pregnancy and/or breastfeeding?
  • Whether the medicine is safe for children to take
  • If you need to store your medicine in a special way.
• Host or attend a medicines information session using the Get to Know Your Medicines Kit. The kit provides tools for you to run interactive activities and events about medicines in your local community.
• The kit includes:
• • a guide on organising and planning an activity including checklists
  • a guide on promoting the activity to get people to attend including template posters, invitations and media releases
  • a 24 slide presentation for use in the activity and a presenters guide
  • a guide to collecting feedback from people attending activities, including forms for participants to complete.

If you would like a kit, or know of a community group or individual who you think may be interested in running medicines information sessions – sample pages of the kit will soon be available online, or place an order for a copy of the CD at www.nps.org.au.

Learn about your medicines from the Consumer Medicine Information leaflet (CMI). CMI leaflets are available for all medicines prescribed and for some medicines you purchase over-the-counter in Australia. Written by the manufacturing pharmaceutical company, CMI leaflets help consumers use medicines in the most appropriate way giving information about how to take the medicine, at the right dose, at the right time. A CMI leaflet can also highlight potential side effects and possible interactions with other medicines. You can collect a CMI leaflet from your pharmacist, or from late March, CMIs will be available on the NPS website at www.nps.org.au.

Read MedicinesTalk, it is written by consumers, for consumers and covers a wide variety of issues and stories relating to medicines.

To find out more about what you can do to get to know your medicines, visit www.nps.org.au/consumers

ENDS