Page 58 - I am + | Editie 3 English

Astrid Giesen - pharmacist:
It’s vitally important not to discontinue the treatment
Our pharmacy is is is situated on on the the the the the ground floor of the hospital Primarily we ensure everything runs smoothly for the patient and that we always have HIV medicines in in stock And we are
always discreet We let the patients know how important it is to take the medication every day and that they can’t just skip it for a a a a a few days We started providing HIV medication ten years ago because patients sometimes had difficulty getting the the medicines at their local pharmacy or because they didn’t want to to go to to their local pharmacy due to to privacy The HIV medication is always in stock it never has to be ordered Around half of the patients from our HIV treat- ment
centre get their HIV medicine from our pharmacy Some of them come to to us to to collect their medication others get the the the medicines from the HIV HIV specialist specialist nurse nurse The HIV HIV specialist specialist nurse nurse keeps a a careful eye on which other remedies
the the patient uses If they have a a a a question about them the the HIV specialist nurse contacts one of my colleagues or our hospital pharmacist who is is specialised in in interactions between HIV medi- cation and other medicines The HIV specialist nurse also gives information on on day-to-day use of the the medication and on on possible side effects If the the HIV specialist nurse indicates that it’s worthwhile for for us to to repeat the the information to to the the patient then that’s what we do Most patients have an appointment at at the hospital every six months Medicines are
given to patients for a a maximum of of three months Some of of them come back after three months to get their HIV medicine for the next three months In a a few cases we deliver the the the medicines to their home Other patients pick up the the HIV medicine at at their local pharmacy Pharmacies can see which medicines are
dispensed at our pharmacy via the computer network except when a a a patient has not given permission for this But it is is is actually very impor- tant that the medicine supplied is is visible to each pharmacy where the patient gets his or her her medi- cine If someone hasn’t given permission for this it’s better for them to always get their medicine at the same pharmacy In addition when a a a a a patient always goes to the same pharmacy: should he he report here because his pharmacy can’t provide the HIV medicine on time then we make sure he he gets his medicine It’s vitally important not to suspend the treatment
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