{"id":5325,"date":"2023-10-09T20:34:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T19:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/?p=5325"},"modified":"2023-10-17T20:29:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T19:29:41","slug":"ensuring-that-medicine-is-still-in-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/ensuring-that-medicine-is-still-in-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensuring that medicine is still in date"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why do medicines have expiry dates?<\/h3>\n

Medicines have expiry dates so you know when to use them by. After the expiry date medicines may not be safe or as effective.<\/span><\/p>\n

You should not take medicines after their expiry date. If you’ve had a medicine for a while, check the expiry date before using it.<\/span><\/p>\n

You should also make sure that you’ve stored the medicine properly, as described on the packaging or leaflet.<\/p>\n

If your medicine looks, tastes or smells different to when you first got it, even if it’s within the expiry date, take it to your pharmacist for advice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What does the expiry date mean?<\/h3>\n

The expiry date usually means that you should not take the medicine after the end of the month given.<\/p>\n

For example, if the expiry date is July 2020, you should not take the medicine after 31 July 2020.<\/p>\n

What does the use by date mean?<\/h3>\n

If your medicine has a use by or use before date instead of an expiry date, this usually means that you should not take the medicine after the end of the previous month.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, if the use by date is July 2020, you should not take the medicine after 30 June 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a doctor or pharmacist has given you any other instructions about using or disposing of your medicine, you should also follow these.<\/p>\n

For example, your pharmacist may label a medicine: “discard 7 days after opening”.<\/span><\/p>\n

You should take any medicine that’s left after this time back to your pharmacist to dispose of, even if it’s within the manufacturer’s expiry date.<\/p>\n

Short expiry dates<\/h3>\n

Some medicines are given a short expiry date, such as:<\/p>\n

\u271a prepared antibiotic mixtures:<\/span> when the pharmacist adds water to powdered antibiotic, it changes the stability of the product, and the pharmacist will give it an expiry date of 1 or 2 weeks, depending on the product<\/p>\n

\u271a\u00a0eyedrops:<\/span> these are usually given an expiry date of 4 weeks after first opening the container, because your eyes are particularly sensitive to any bacteria that might get into the eyedrops<\/p>\n

How can I dispose of expired medicine?<\/h3>\n

If you have medicines that have passed their expiry date, take them to your pharmacist, who can dispose of them safely for you.<\/p>\n

You should never throw unused or expired medicines in the rubbish bin or flush them down the toilet.<\/p>\n

(Information taken from the NHS England website. Last reviewed: January 2020)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why do medicines have expiry dates? Medicines have expiry dates so you know when to use them by. After the expiry date medicines may not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6290,"featured_media":5336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[390],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5328,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions\/5328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhealthyourpharmacy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}