PATIENTS visiting A&E or going in for an operation at Taunton;s Musgrove Park Hospital are being urged to take their usual medicine with them.

Doctors and pharmacists say it is safer if they know which medicines a patient is on.

And – with unused medicines costing the NHS around £3millon a year in Somerset – it saves duplication and wasting public money.

A recent check showed only a third of patients took all their medicines with them.

Jon Beard, Musgrove's chief pharmacist, said: “Seeing the medicines you are taking gives us really important information about your health and any conditions, whatever the reason you are in hospital.

“This can affect the treatment we give you, and allows us to make sure that any medicines we prescribe while you are in hospital are compatible with those you’re already taking.”