A medicines list you can actually produce when somebody asks

Why the list is never where you need it

Almost nobody has one medicines list. They have a pharmacy bag with the current boxes, a note on a phone from the last appointment, a repeat prescription slip, and a memory of the one that was stopped. Each of those is accurate about something and none of them is accurate about everything.

The gap shows up at the worst moment: somebody asks what your mother takes, and the answer given is whichever version is nearest to hand. A list that is written once and kept in one place is not an administrative nicety. It is the difference between a clinician working from what is true and working from what was remembered.

What a useful medicines list actually contains

Name, dose, how often, and what it is for, in that order, for everything — including the things people leave off. Over-the-counter painkillers count. Supplements and vitamins count, because some of them interact with prescriptions.

Inhalers, eye drops, creams and patches count, because people do not think of them as medicines. Anything taken occasionally rather than daily should say so rather than be left out. Add the pharmacy and the prescribing clinician if you know them, and the date you last checked the list against the actual boxes — an undated list is one nobody can tell is current.

Write allergies and previous bad reactions on the same sheet, because they are asked for in the same breath.

Worth asking when the list is in front of somebody

Is anything on this list doing the same job as something else on it? Is there anything here that could come off? Which of these matter most if we ever had to manage on fewer?

What should we do about a missed dose of each one — because the answer is not the same for all of them. Is the timing on any of these flexible, and which are not? If my mother ends up in hospital, which of these needs to be mentioned first?