Use the actual products
Following Health and Social Care Northern Ireland’s My Medicines List approach, collect the information for medicines and supplements you actually take. Include relevant prescribed and non-prescription items rather than only tablets. Record the name and formulation from the real label or current professional record; a similar brand or an old internet product image is insufficient to identify it.
Retain instructions rather than inventing them
Keep the current prescribing or supplied instructions and the source date with each item. If information conflicts or a name is unclear, mark the question for the pharmacist or treating clinician. Do not guess a dose from a package photograph, copy another person’s schedule or change treatment to make two records agree. Use the appropriate professional route when instructions are uncertain.
Record questions that matter to the review
Write a separate question for each uncertainty: whether two names describe the same current item, whether an old record is superseded, or whether an over-the-counter product needs discussing. Tell the professional about relevant concerns through a private appointment. A list alone does not establish interactions, explain kidney function or determine whether a medicine is appropriate for an individual.
Maintain a private current version
Date the list and bring it to the relevant appointment through a secure route. Update it from confirmed professional changes while retaining the source of those changes. Keep personal identifiers and health details out of public templates or shared comments. This site receives no list uploads; downloadable examples contain invented references rather than real medicine instructions.
Read the drawing as text
The product identity, source of current instructions and dated list stay linked. Conflicting records become a professional question, not a dose change.
Work through an example
A fictional person has label L for product P and an older note using a different name. They record both sources and ask their pharmacist whether the older entry still applies. The list marks the question unresolved rather than doubling the item or changing its use. An over-the-counter supplement is included as a discussion item. No real dose, medicine combination or treatment is recommended.
Illustrative example; figures, people and organisations in the worked record are fictional.
The example record
Identity
- Evidence
- P / actual formulation on L
- Next question
- Confirm unclear names
Instructions
- Evidence
- Current professional source
- Next question
- Do not infer or change
Other items
- Evidence
- Supplement included
- Next question
- Discuss with professional
Version
- Evidence
- Dated private list
- Next question
- Update from confirmed changes
Download blank worksheet (.csv) ↗Download worked example (.csv) ↗
Keep your own record
Use the result within its scope
A reliable list supports a professional conversation. It is not a medication review, interaction checker or instruction to start, stop, switch or alter a medicine. For urgent concerns use the appropriate local clinical route.
Reference sources
Earlier articles on this subject
- What Causes Renal Failure? ↗ — 2022-01-07, Maria Baldwin.
- How CBD Oil Is Relaxing Products? ↗ — 2021-03-23, Maria Baldwin.