Monday 2 January 2012

Medication Wastage - The Cost of Irresponsibility

The other day this lady came in to dispose some of her husband's medication. It was about 4 boxes worth of Lipitor 10mg literally untouched like a baby's bottom. So I inquired as to the reason of the return. She revealed that her husband has been put on to another medication "or something".

Being the curious guy that I am, I pulled up the guy's file to see what he was swapped to, thinking maybe he got put on the fancy Crestor that the Astra rep (these reps almost always needing a set of pronounced curvaceous glory) have been raving about.

Behold, he was put on to Lipitor 20mg just a few days before.

Connecting the dots together (the returned lipitor had a dispensing label dated 3 months ago), one realises that he has not been taking *any* of the Lipitor for at least 3-4 months. The Dr, being none the wiser, understandably increased the dose due to unchanged/worsening cholesterol profile.

This whole exercise have just put $80 of the tax payer's money down the drain plus the $90 worth of 20mg that he most likely is not going to take. But does he give a shit? Not really seeing as he only pays $3 per script.

This is small money in the grand scheme of things but I hope he doesn't end up being one of those guys that gets on Campbell Live and complain that he has to wait for 6 months to get a CABG.

1 comment:

  1. Really makes you realise how much waste there is sadly

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