RETURN UNUSED MEDICINES
Medicines ‘stored’ at home are a major problem. Accident and Emergency departments of hospitals report alarming rates of poisonings of children due to accidental ingestion of medicines stored in the home. Aged patients also represent a large number of hospital admissions caused by accidental poisoning, often caused by confusion at the variety of medicines previously prescribed and then replaced by subsequent medicines. In addition to the health impacts, medicines have the potential to contaminate the environment if they are discarded via landfill sites and sewerage facilities.
As a result, the Australian Government has partnered with community pharmacies to establish the Return Unwanted Medicines (RUM) Project to facilitate the collection and safe disposal of unwanted medicines from the community. This service is a free and convenient way to dispose of your unwanted medicines responsibly via your local pharmacy – Watson’s Friendly Pharmacy.
What you need to do: Read. Remove. Return
Medicines can be taken to any pharmacy for disposal and it is not necessary to return them to the pharmacy from which they were originally purchased. However, sharps and sharp containers cannot be return as part of this project. The nearest collection point for sharp containers in the Tuncurry-Forster area is the Community Health Centre on Breese Pde, Forster.