Too many medicines an issue

The southern region leads the nation when it comes to people on five or more long-term medications, and it is an issue the Southern District Health Board is looking to address.

The focus of Patient Safety Week 2017 is medication safety, which is an area of concern with Southland’s ageing population.

The Health Quality and Safety Commission New Zealand’s Atlas for Healthcare Variation shows that the southern region leads the way when it comes to patients over the age of 65 taking five or more long-term medications, with 40.4 per cent doing so in 2016. Although this is a slight decrease in the percentage of patients from 41.5 per cent in 2014, the overall number has gone from 20,397 to 21,030. It is well above the national mean of 34.6 per cent.

Southern also leads the categories for people taking eight to 10 long-term medications (11.5 per cent), as well as those taking 11 or more long-term medications (5.6 per cent).

Board chief medical officer Dr Nigel Millar said that the use of a large number of medications, especially among older patients, is a country-wide issue.

‘‘Across the country, we have a challenge with getting the right balance for older people,’’ he said.

There were particular challenges facing older patients when it came to negative interactions between different medications.

‘‘As you get older, your liver gets smaller and your kidneys don’t work as well, which means that medications take longer to clear from your system, and this build-up increases the risk of drug interactions. As you increase your medications and increase your age, the chance of significant side effects rises,’’ Millar said.

To address the issue in the southern region, the health board is working with primary health organisations to reduce the number of medications where appropriate.

‘‘We’ve engaged with WellSouth, and their community pharmacists are working on a programme of medication review, going through patients’ medications and working with their GP and trying to simplify it,’’ Millar said.

He said that patients are some of the most important people in the provision of healthcare, as they are the ones administering the medication on a daily basis and therefore need to understand as much as possible about their medications.

‘‘Don’t be afraid important,’’ he said.

One of the best things patients can do is keep a list of the medications they are taking, and taking it with them when they visit a health professional.

As part of Patient Safety Week, hospitals throughout the region have been urging patients to ask questions about their medications, including what the medication is called, what it is for, and how it should be taken.

Hospitals have been using display boards with information about medication safety including posters, leaflets and stickers. , to ask, it is Stuff yesterday announced changes to the way it will cover sport in the regions.

The changes mean sport will be covered by the national reporting team out of the metropolitan newsrooms in the country.

The roles of 10 regionally-based sport reporters, including two based in Southland, and one racing reporter will be made redundant, leaving a national team of 30.

It followed an analysis of sport journalism across our products, which showed a large number of local stories were being read by very few people.

This new approach is based on print and digital insights about what our audiences most value; it will allow us to concentrate on how we deliver news in a changing landscape.

National sport franchises in regional areas will continue to be covered by the national reporting team.