‘We are going to listen to you now’: Dr Liz Marles on protecting patients from the harms of too much medicine
Associate Professor Liz Marles, former RACGP president, talks about her experiences with polypharmacy.
Polypharmacy is a complex issue for doctors, particularly when it comes to older patients — the gradual functional decline, the increasing frailty, and cascading complications often mistaken for disease progression.
Here Associate Professor Liz Marles, former RACGP president, talks about the warning signs, the medico-legal issues and dealing with the other specialists whose prescriptions you want to stop.
AusDoc:Â Polypharmacy seems such an important issue. Some figures we read recently said more than 40% of patients aged 50 years or older take five or more medicines.
When did you first see its impact on one of your own patients?
