Going into hospital or moving to a care home can be pretty disruptive in the short term to your daily routine. To add to the problem, between 30-70% of patients have an error or unintentional change to their medicines when they move from one care setting to another.

Ensuring medicines are used safety is a continual challenge, since up to 8% of unplanned admissions to hospital are due to medication issues.

If you are one of those people who want to be an active participant in your own healthcare, you can do a lot to help ensure everyone knows the correct details about your medicines. This should include:

• details of the medicines you are currently taking and the dosage
• known drug allergies and any unexpected reactions to medicines or their ingredients
• details of relevant contacts (your GP, local pharmacy and family members or carers where appropriate)

You can ask your pharmacist help you put the list together and get them to update it if your medicines change.

This information should ideally be shared within 24 hours of changing location.