It's important to follow doctor’s orders when taking medications; however that doesn't always happen, especially with senior citizens.

Greg MacIntyre, a pharmacist in Saint John, says not taking medications as prescribed can have serious effects.

“Sixty-nine per cent of hospitalizations due to medications are due to medication adherence problems,” says Macintyre. “So we estimate that it costs the government about seven to nine billion dollars a year because of adherence. So we have lots of stuff in pharmacy we can do to help.”

MacIntyre says medication adherence problems can happen for a number of reasons. Whether a patient thinks they feel well enough to stop, it's too expensive, they don't remember, or it runs out.

“We can assess the patient and adapt prescriptions and we can also help renew medications so that we can bridge that gap before they see their physician,” says Macintyre.

Macintyre says the average Canadian over the age of 50 is on approximately four medications and those 65 and over average over five medications.

Linda Nickerson is the executive director of the Seniors Resource and a senior herself. She says she thinks it's often the cost of the medication that deters people from abiding by the label.

“As people age, and they become a senior, often times you don't usually, when you're retired, you don't have the income that you do when you're working and it can be, some prescriptions can be especially costly,” says Nickerson.

Remembering to take medication on time is also a big issue; however MacIntyre says blister packs are proving to be helpful.

“When you get into more complicated regimes we have what's called compliance packaging, where we actually can put the medications in the appropriate time slots and you can go and Wednesday at noon I take these medications. We'll do that up for a month’s supply for the patients,” says MacIntyre.

Since introducing the blister packages MacIntyre has seen a 10 per cent increase in medication compliance, but he admits it's a work in progress.

“We're the most accessible health care professional, you can come in at any time,” says MacIntyre. “We're first line guys, so we have patients coming in about everything and anything.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Blackford