Managing Medications
The Medication section tracks all current and past medications for a patient, organised by type and status.
How to Get There
Open a patient record and navigate to Clinical Record > Medication.
Medication Sections
Medications are grouped into tabs:
- Active - current medications, subdivided into:
- Acute (blue) - one-off or short-course medications
- Repeat (purple) - ongoing medications that can be re-issued
- Paused - temporarily suspended medications
- Past - stopped or expired medications
Both acute and repeat medications expire 12 months after the last issue date, or 12 months from creation if never issued.
Medication Card
Each medication card shows:
- Name and dosage instructions
- Authorising clinician and start date
- Frequency, route, and duration
- Expiry date
- Issues - for repeat medications, the number of times issued vs the authorised total (e.g. "2/6 issued")
- Review badge - appears on medications imported from other systems that need clinical review
Click a medication to open the detail sidebar showing:
- Full medication details (display name, brand, strength, form)
- SIG (directions for use)
- Status badge
- Timeline - history of issues, authorisations, reauthorisations, and type changes
- Medication administrations - records of doses given with date, clinician, dose, route, and site
Key Actions
Two buttons appear at the top of the medications view:
- Issue Medication - search the dm+d database, select a regimen, set dosage and directions, and add the medication to the patient's record. This is the first step before a prescription can be created.
- Issue Prescription - create a prescription from medications that have already been issued to the patient (see the Issuing a Prescription article). This is the second step.
From the detail sidebar:
- Reauthorise - extend a repeat medication
- Change Type - switch between acute, repeat, and repeat dispensing
- Stop - permanently end the medication with a documented reason
- Pause - temporarily suspend
- End Course - mark a course as complete
Tip: The medication workflow is two steps: first Issue Medication to add the medication to the patient's record, then Issue Prescription to create a prescription from that medication.
Note: To issue electronic prescriptions, your organisation must have Signature Rx connected. See the Signature Rx article in Integrations & Apps.
Externally managed medications
Not every medication a patient takes is prescribed by your clinic. Use the Externally managed option to record medications that someone else manages — an NHS GP, another private clinic, or the patient themselves.
Marking a medication externally managed
- From the Issue Medication popover — toggle the Externally managed switch when adding the med. Inline fields appear for who manages it (NHS GP / Hospital / Other clinic / Patient self-managed), the organisation or clinician name, the source you got the information from, and when it was last confirmed.
- From the medication drawer — click the Management action row. The row's sub-label shows the current status at a glance ("Managed by this clinic" or "Externally managed · NHS GP"). Click to edit.
What changes when a medication is externally managed
- A blue Externally managed badge appears on the medication row, with the manager type alongside
- Externally-managed meds are excluded from your clinic's repeat-authorisation counters — you're not the prescriber, so they don't belong in your repeat workload
- If you decide to take over prescribing, opening Issue prescription routes through a Reissue interstitial that captures the take-over deliberately before any prescription is generated