It starts with two tablets a day. Then a specialist adds one, the GP changes the dose of another, something gets prescribed "as needed", and one afternoon you're standing in your parent's kitchen holding a shoebox of boxes, trying to work out whether the blue one is still current.
This is a plain system for getting on top of it. It takes about an hour to set up and it will save you far more than that.
Step one: get everything in one place, including the things nobody calls medication
Empty every drawer, bag and bedside table. Include the things people forget to mention:
- Over-the-counter painkillers
- Vitamins and supplements
- Herbal remedies
- Eye drops, creams and patches
- Anything prescribed by a specialist rather than the GP
- Anything left over from a hospital stay
Put it all on the table. This alone usually turns up two or three surprises.
Step two: write the list before you throw anything away
For each one, write down the name, the strength, the dose, when it's taken, who prescribed it, and what it's for. That last column matters more than people expect — it's the one a locum, a paramedic or a new carer will ask about, and it's the one nobody can ever remember.
Then, and only then, take anything expired or discontinued to a pharmacy for disposal. Don't bin it and don't flush it.
Step three: make a chart that's actually readable
Most medication charts fail for one reason: the print is too small for the person using it. If your mother needs her glasses to read the chart that tells her whether she's taken her glaucoma drops, the chart isn't working.
A chart that gets used has:
- Large print. Readable at arm's length, without glasses if possible.
- One row per medicine. Not one row per time of day.
- Tick boxes by time. Morning, midday, evening, bedtime.
- Somewhere for "as needed" doses, with space to note the time and the reason.
- A fixed home. On the fridge, or in the same place on the kitchen bench. Not floating.
Our Senior Medication Tracker is built to those rules — large print, a row per medicine, tick boxes morning to bedtime, and space for prescriber and pharmacy details.
Step four: if more than one person gives medication, you need a signed record
The moment a second person is involved — a sibling, a support worker, a respite carer — ticks stop being enough. You need a record that shows who gave what, and when.
That's what a Medication Administration Record does. It has a signature box for every dose and codes for refusals and as-needed medication, so there's never a question about whether the 6pm dose happened. Our Medication Administration Record (MAR) is a printable record sheet for family and personal use, laid out the same way a professional chart is. It is designed for personal and family use and is not a substitute for an organisation's approved clinical records.
Step five: take the list to every appointment
Bring the current list to every GP visit, specialist appointment, pharmacy review and hospital admission. Ask two questions each time:
- "Is everything on this list still needed?"
- "Does anything here interact badly with anything else?"
It is also worth asking the GP about a Home Medicines Review. A pharmacist visits at home, goes through every medicine with the person, and reports back to the doctor. It is a government-funded service arranged through your GP, who decides whether it is appropriate and makes the referral. It is genuinely useful and badly underused, so it is worth raising yourself rather than waiting to be offered it — ask your GP or pharmacist whether it would help in your parent's situation.
Step six: write down changes the day they happen
The dangerous gap is the week after a change. A dose gets adjusted at an appointment, the chart doesn't get updated, and two people are working from different information.
Date every change on the chart and reprint it. That's the whole discipline, and it's why an undated printable beats a laminated one — you can print a clean copy the day something changes.
Keep it all together
Medication is one section of a bigger picture. The Senior Care Binder holds the medication list alongside medical history, emergency contacts, GP and specialist details and daily routine — so if someone else has to take over tomorrow, they can.
This article is general information and a personal record-keeping aid. It is not medical advice. Always check medication questions with the prescribing doctor or a pharmacist, and confirm current Home Medicines Review eligibility with your GP or pharmacist.