For informed conversations with your healthcare team. This guide is not personalised medical advice and has not been individually reviewed by a clinician.
Start with one accurate list
Medicines often appear in several places: a repeat prescription, a phone reminder, a supplement bottle and an occasional painkiller bought without a prescription. Bring them together before an overseas surgical assessment. Record the name, reason for use and how you actually take each product, including injections, inhalers and herbal preparations. The NHS advises telling the pre-operative team about medicines, vitamins and supplements. Include allergies and what happened during any previous reaction. This preparation helps clinicians ask focused questions and reduces the chance that a familiar daily product is overlooked because it does not feel like medicine.
Check who owns each decision
Ask the anaesthetist and surgeon which treatments need an individual plan and whether the original prescriber should be involved. Blood-thinning medicines, diabetes treatment and other long-term prescriptions should not be stopped on the strength of a general booking checklist. Request clear written instructions, including when a medicine is to be reviewed or restarted if changes are required. Where two clinicians disagree, ask them to resolve the difference directly. Keep the final version dated so an earlier email does not accidentally become the instruction you follow on the day of surgery.
Carry the plan into discharge
Before leaving hospital, compare the discharge prescription with your usual list and ask about duplicate ingredients, interactions and products you have been told to avoid. Check generic medicine names if local brand names are unfamiliar, and request an explanation in a language you understand. Agree who will answer medication questions after you return home and provide your usual clinician with the discharge summary. As a practical safeguard, keep a copy available offline as well as on your phone. The aim is continuity across the trip, with each change traceable to a responsible clinician.
Questions to take with you
- Which medicines require discussion with my usual prescriber?
- Who resolves conflicting pre-operative instructions?
- How will the discharge prescription be checked against my existing treatment?
Sources & further reading
Further reading from the medical, regulatory and specialist organisations cited in this article.
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