Medicines Waste in Care Homes - environmental and social impacts

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I wrote to the DoH some years ago because I worked out most care homes were throwing away at least £300 (usually more) a month in discarded medication, most of it unopened and almost always also used by other residents. I suggested there could be huge savings made by having either pharmacist or designated nurse able to transfer medication by relabelling / renaming to another resident within the same home. The response I got was that though they thought there was 3 million worth of medication being thrown away, they did not feel it worth while looking at any reuse.

Thanks for your comments, Karen Rock That really is shocking, but having worked in care homes in the past, sadly I am not surprised. The evidence suggests £50million annually being wasted, so it is huge! What we would really like to do is look at how to avoid unnecessary ordering in the first place and also look at strategies for having "bulk" or "stock" medicine that is not assigned to a single patient.