Pharmacy rules on pill boxes cause confusion for patients
New guidance on medication dosette boxes ‘unworkable’ for many in need
BOOTS pharmacies have been criticised for refusing to give pill boxes to some patients who use them to organise their medication.
Pill boxes, known as dosette or blister pack boxes, allow patients to take the correct amount of tablets each day and are particularly useful for those who are on lots of different medications.
However, Boots said that this was “not always the most appropriate option”.
Responding to updated guidance from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), Boots said: “The latest Royal Pharmaceutical Society guidance indicates that the use of multi-compartment compliance aids (MCCAS) is not always the most appropriate option for patients that need support to take their medicines at the right dose and time. Our pharmacy team members have been speaking with patients who we provide with MCCAS to discuss whether it is still the right way to support them...
“Alternative support might include large print labels and a medicines reminder chart. In many cases, MCCAS will remain the most appropriate option for the patient and we will continue to support them in this way.”
The RPS guidance states that the pill boxes should not “automatically be the intervention of choice for all patients” because not all medicines are suitable for inclusion. It also pointed out that the repackaging of medication from the manufacturer’s original packaging involves risks.
“It is a recommendation of the RPS that the use of original packs of medicines, supported by appropriate pharmaceutical care, should be the preferred intervention for the supply of medicines in the absence of a specific need for an MCA in all settings,” the guidance said.
The RPS said that some tablets absorb moisture from the air, meaning they are less stable when removed from their original container. There is also the risk that patients end up over-medicating and, if a mistake is
‘Handling seven individual boxes was totally unworkable’
made when dispensing the tablets into the pill boxes, patients may not have a clear reference idea about what they have been taking.
Patients and their carers described the move as unworkable and dangerous.
Tracey Hobbs said her mother, Pat Garner, who takes more than 15 pills a day, had for years been provided with MCCAS by her local Boots pharmacy. However, she recently received a phone call from the pharmacy explaining that from the following month the drugs would be supplied in the original packaging.
“I pointed out that the blister packs were the only way we could know she had taken her medication at the right time.
“Handling seven individual boxes with different instructions on each one was totally unworkable and – quite frankly – dangerous,” Ms Hobbs told the BBC.