Introduction
The pharmacists' role in providing information about medicines has expanded recently to include medication reviews (MR), although nurses and GPs also provide these.1,2 The aim of this study was to identify the general public's preferences for obtaining medicines information and medication review.

Method
Data were gathered during a study of unused medicines approved by East Birmingham LREC. One hundred randomly selected people from each of the edited electoral rolls for all ten political wards in Eastern Birmingham PCT received a postal questionnaire. This asked about repeat medicine use, history of MR and preferences for who should provide reviews, where and sources of medicines information. Respondents could give multiple responses to the preference questions. Follow up mailings were issued to non-responders after four and eight weeks. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann-Whitney U and Chi-Squared tests in Minitab v14.

Results
A total of 404 (40%) valid questionnaires were returned, with no significant difference in response rates between wards. Respondents were similar to the PCT population in terms of sex (58% female) and adult (>18) age distribution, although ethnic minorities were poorly represented. Two thirds (60%) of respondents were receiving medicines on repeat prescription.
Twenty respondents (5%) expressed no preference for the healthcare professional providing their MR; of the 363 who did, 316 (87%) indicated doctor, 91 (25%) nurse and 17 (5%) pharmacist. Seven (2%) had no preference for the location of a MR. Of the 372 who indicated preferences, 344 (92%) ticked GP surgery, 43 (12%) their home and 25 (7%) a community pharmacy. Respondents who had received a review in the past year were more likely to prefer frequent reviews (p < 0.001).
Most respondents were satisfied with information on how (90%) and why (75%) they were taking medicines, although satisfaction was greater among those taking repeats (p<0.001). The most popular source of information on these aspects was the GP (66%, 59%) with patient information leaflets (PIL) as second choice (40%, 47%). Many desired more information on ADRs (42%) and how medicines worked (40%). Again PILs and GPs were the most popular sources of this information (50-53%).
Pharmacies were selected much less frequently as a source for any information (17-26%).

Discussion
Opinions were gathered from a random sample of the general population, without targeting patients taking repeat medicines or receiving MR, although many respondents had experience of both. They thus represent a wider cross-section of the population likely to require information on medicines and reviews. Respondents indicated only limited support for pharmacist- and nurse-led MR, despite wanting to receive reviews, and did not identify pharmacies as a useful source of information, preferring to use their GP or a PIL.