A HEALTH authority has issued a warning about hoarding potentially dangerous old medicines at home.

Every year, children are poisoned after eating tablets or drinking medicine left lying around the house.

County Durham and Darlington Health Authority is urging people to check their homes for unwanted medicines and take them to a pharmacy.

As part of the message, advertisements featuring a clean and tidy medicine cabinet and a pink feather duster will be appearing in GP practices and pharmacies during the next few weeks.

Pharmacists in the area will also be giving out leaflets to all their customers. Passengers will also see Operation Spring Clean adverts inside local buses.

Anne Everden, pharmaceutical advisor for the authority, said: "We are doing this as part of our campaign to reduce accidents in the home. Keeping old medicine is not a good idea, because it is a danger to children who tend to think that medicine looks like sweeties.

"The key message is, if in doubt, chuck it out. But don't put it in the rubbish or pour it down the loo, take it to your local pharmacy, who will dispose of it properly," said Ms Everden.

A total of 117 pharmacies in County Durham and Darlington are taking part in the campaign.

Elsewhere in the region, Sunderland Health Authority has launched a parallel campaign to try to cut the cost of prescribing unwanted medicines. In Sunderland, more than £1.2m worth of unused medicines are returned to local pharmacies each year for disposal.

Health experts believe that much of repeat prescription medication is wasted because patients no longer take all of the medicines they receive, or take different doses.

Patients are being asked to consider whether they really need to reorder the same quantity of medicine.