How to Get a Webster Pak in Newport

Keeping track of several medicines a day is hard, and a missed or doubled dose is easy when tablets sit in separate bottles. A Webster Pak takes most of that guesswork away, because each dose is sealed into its own labelled compartment, and getting one set up is easier than many people expect. Your Community Pharmacy in Newport sets up Webster Pak medication packs and offers weekly delivery. This article explains how to get a Webster Pak: who a pack suits, the steps to get started, how collection and delivery work, and a government program that can help with the cost.

What a Webster Pak does

Webster Paks are dose administration aids, often called blister packs, made under the Webster-pak brand. Each one is a sealed card that sorts your tablets and capsules into individual doses for each day of the week. The blisters are labelled by dose time, such as morning, midday, evening and bedtime, so you know exactly what to take and when.

Because every dose sits in its own tamper-evident blister, the card also works as a visual record. At each dose time you press out the right blister, and anything still sealed shows you straight away that a dose was missed. For a fuller look at the format, read how it compares with a dosette box.

Who should consider a Webster Pak?

Older people are among the most common users, but Webster Paks are not only for them. A pack suits anyone who finds it difficult to keep track of multiple medicines through the day, including:

• People who take several prescription medicines every day
• People living with a long-term condition such as high blood pressure or diabetes
• People who find their medicines hard to manage because of language, reading, a physical disability or memory and thinking difficulties
• Carers looking after a family member’s medication schedule

If you are often unsure whether a dose went down, that alone is a good reason to talk to us about a pack.

Getting a Webster Pak, step by step

Here is how setting up a pack works:

1. Gather your scripts: bring your current prescriptions, paper or electronic tokens, and a list of every medicine you take, including over-the-counter products and supplements.
2. Talk to the pharmacist: visit Your Community Pharmacy on Kalinya St or phone ahead to talk through your routine.
3. Choose collection or delivery: pick your pack up in store or have it delivered weekly.
4. Start using your pack: if anything on the labels is unclear, check with the pharmacist before you press out the first dose.

If you would like your whole list looked at first, a medication review has the pharmacist check your prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines and supplements together for interactions, side effects and doses. Our medication review guide explains more.

Funded packs: the Dose Administration Aids Program

Funding is one part of working out how to get a Webster Pak: some people qualify for government funding through the Dose Administration Aids Program. The Pharmacy Programs Administrator, which administers it, sets out who qualifies. To be eligible, a person needs to:

• Hold a Medicare or DVA card, or be eligible for a Medicare card
• Live at home in a community setting
• Hold a valid government-issued concession card
• Either have difficulty managing their medicines because of literacy or language issues, a physical disability or cognitive difficulties, or take five or more prescription medicines and have difficulty managing them

People in hospital or living in residential aged care are not covered by this program. Ask the pharmacist if it could apply to you.

Collection, delivery and support for carers

You can collect your pack in store during opening hours, Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm, or have it brought to you with weekly delivery. The pharmacy’s free local delivery brings scripts and pharmacy items to your door with no minimum order. Phone the pharmacy to check whether it delivers to your address.

If you are a carer, support worker or family member managing someone else’s medicines, a pack removes a real source of stress and risk:

• Clear labelling takes the guesswork out of giving each dose
• Everyone sharing the job can see the same record of what has been given
• Each dose is already counted out, so nobody has to sort tablets on the spot

A family-owned pharmacy in Newport

Your Community Pharmacy was established in Newport by Reg Maher in 1959 and has been family-owned for three generations. Found one of your scripts listed for less somewhere else? Show the team the lower price and ask about price matching.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting your first Webster Pak

A Webster Pak turns a confusing pile of bottles into one sealed card, with every dose in its own labelled blister. To start, bring your scripts and medicine list to the pharmacist, who can also talk through delivery and the funded program.