CHIDDENBROOK Surgery is currently raising awareness of medicine wastage with a display in the waiting room.

The surgery hopes to raise awareness with their campaign Avoiding Medicine Wastage which coincides with the national campaign and aims to raise awareness to reduce the amount of medicine that is wasted each year.

The slogan for the campaign is Don’t be a hoarder - don’t over order.

A staggering £5.5million is wasted in Devon alone on unused medicines and this amount of wastage could pay for one of the following:

•730 heart bypass operations

•1,000 hip replacements

•2,235 knee replacements or

•10,720 cataract operations

Patients are asked to check their medical supplies and only order what they need.

To tell their doctor, nurse or pharmacist if their medication is no longer agreeing with them or if they have stopped taking the medication.

Patients are also advised to open their bag of medication whilst at the pharmacy and if they have any items they have not requested or items surplus to their needs to return them to the pharmacy whilst there. Once a patient has left the pharmacy with medication, even if it has not been opened, can not be reused.

Dr Claire Griffiths said: " Hopefully the campaigns will help to raise awareness and encourage patients to cut down on medicine wastage and also remind people to access our website to find information."

The Chiddenbrook League of Friends has supplied the surgery with new screens for the waiting rooms which are used to help promote health topics. Patients can also find information on the website: www.chiddenbrook-surgery.nhs.uk , or on the surgery’s Facebook page, as well as from leaflets in the waiting room.

Once a month a small group meets to brainstorm ideas and to provide information on a health topic. The ideas sometimes coincide with national campaigns such as Stop Smoking in March.

During January the topic was Self Care and an excellent display in the waiting room offered patients advice and information on minor ailments.

Patients were advised to visit their local pharmacy for advice on pain management.

Some pharmacies run Pharmacy First where they can help treat minor ailments without you needing to see a doctor - these include impetigo, conjunctivitis, oral thrush, urinary tract infections and infected nappy rash. The health topic for February will be Falls.