Emma: Problems with multiple medicines (II) – Limited access to doctors and pharmacies
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Emma
Female
Age at interview: 41
Number of medicines: 19
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Emma finds pharmacy opening hours are not always convenient, particularly with her limited mobility and full-time work hours, and they do not always have what she needs in stock.
Emma:
Sometimes the pharmacy hasn’t had some things I've taken but they've always gone and run to one of the other pharmacies in my suburb to go and find them. So sometimes they don’t just seem to have the stock. Generally I've been okay and have managed to get them. I may have had to drive to another suburb once to kind of get something just because it was late in the day, you know. I've left it a bit too late and gone, oh dear. So, yes, generally it's been fine … I've been lucky. I guess I chose a pharmacy that opened til nine o'clock at night. So it did take me a little while when I first moved to my suburb to find one that I felt comfortable with because I generally leave all my prescriptions with the pharmacist so that they're there. So every time I can go into the chemist, that he's got them in a file.
There has been one time when they lost the prescription. That was a little bit awkward. So, and I think it was for maybe my Lyrica but because it was a private script they were okay. So they actually could supply it to me and just get the script later. I guess with the PBS ones they have to get them within so many days. They did eventually find it so I was very lucky. No, they've been ... I think that's very important that pharmacists can hold onto scripts.
Jacqueline:
What difference does that make?
Emma:
I guess, for me, if I come home from work and I don’t want to particularly go back home first and just want to get things when I'm out, I can just go straight to the pharmacy. If I've run out of a script at the pharmacist and I've left the new one at home and I go in there and I don’t have it, I generally have to take it back later which, you know, with arthritis, having to walk up the street, it's quite annoying, like, to have to do that again when you've just been out. I guess I could have gone back within a week and taken it but I like to get things done straight away. So I think that's important just because they're all kept together. I am organised so I probably would manage doing it at home but it's just the convenience of having them all in the one spot.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.