Abstract
Background: The aim of this study was to determine the type, quantity, and cost of medications being disposed of by clients in a specifically-set pharmaceutical disposal bin at a village community pharmacy. Methods: Medicines placed in a medication disposal bin by clients were examined during a nine-month period from April to December 2018. The data recorded included the active ingredient, trade name, dose, dosage form, disposed quantity, and the actual expiry date on the pack. The medications were classified according to ATC (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System) code, and the cost of the amount wasted was calculated using the pharmacy’s price list. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 411 medications were collected, amounting to a total cost of approximately €2600. The largest group of medications belonged to the alimentary group, and this also represented the group with the highest monetary value. The number of months that medicinal products were retained by patients beyond the expiry date ranged from 1 to 232. Conclusion: This small study provides a glimpse of what clients dispose of in a medication bin when this is readily available in their community pharmacy, a simple measure which, if adopted on a national level, could aid in ensuring the appropriate disposal of wasted medication.
Highlights
A systematic review of the literature, which included 42 published primary research papers, found that the majority of the studies (74%) quantified medication wastage [1], with the extent and type of wasted medication varying between studies [2,3]
The direct cost of medication waste is a major concern which can jeopardize the sustainability of healthcare systems, with some studies estimating millions of euros in wasted medication when extrapolating their findings on a national level [4,5]
A survey conducted by WasteServ in 2014 found that only a tenth of the Maltese population dispose of expired medication generated within households appropriately at one of the civic amenity sites [9,10] situated across the Maltese Islands
Summary
A systematic review of the literature, which included 42 published primary research papers, found that the majority of the studies (74%) quantified medication wastage [1], with the extent and type of wasted medication varying between studies [2,3]. While the extent of medication wastage has been reported for other countries, as indicated from the systematic review discussed above [1], studies physically quantifying and costing medication waste in Malta are lacking. The rationale for the current study was to generate data on medication waste for the Maltese Islands. The aim of this study was to determine the type, quantity, and cost of medications being disposed of by clients in a -set pharmaceutical disposal bin at a village community pharmacy. The largest group of medications belonged to the alimentary group, and this represented the group with the highest monetary value
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