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[Night_Owl]

We've just moved and our new GP practice will only give one month prescription of meds.  I am really shocked by this and the expense.  £8.80 for 8 patches and quite often I have to replace them as they fall off, so sometimes I will have to re-order twice in a month.

Husband has bought a Prescription Prepayment Certificate - he's been on asthma inhaler and statins long term but again they will only give one month at a time, it's ridiculous - the time and expense spent on administering repeats.

My last surgery gave 3 months and then 6 months prescription of my HRT as I was on their 'Carers Register' (I am a 'distance carer' to my elderly father).

Has anybody else encountered this?

[Dotty]

I think Nice guidelines say you should be given 3 months of hrt.

[Night_Owl]

Thanks for this Dotty - will check out the guidelines.

[Cazikins]

Hi Night Owl,
Sometimes when you register with a new GP they like to do a meds review, so maybe book one with a nurse practitioner & mention that you use to get 3 months supply.

[Night_Owl]

Thanks for the suggestion Cazikins - will try this - although my hub has been reviewed by the Asthma Nurse and told he would be on monthly prescriptions - seems wrong as he's been on the inhaler/statins for many years.  It's quite stressful to have to keep re-ordering.

[CLKD]

It is due to the over-prescription and wastage of medications in the UK.   People keep getting repeats for years but sometimes don't take them.  Or the prescription is changed but the repeat not cancelled.  GPs retire or move on so there is rarely a time line for checking what patients actually require.  Our GP have a 12 month review, mainly for box ticking but to check how the patient is actually feeling. BP done, weight checked etc..

Monthly is fine.  It is on repeat, I send an e-mail to my Surgery 2 weeks prior to running out and it's ready within 3 days. 

When someone goes into Hospital they are asked to take the current medications with them, then anything that is suggested whilst in Hospital is prescribed from the Pharmacy, even if it's the same as they already take  .  Ten years ago my Dad came home with double what he would ever have taken as did a neighbour more recently ...... again wastage as the NHS won't take packets back even if un-opened, nor does the drug get sent abroad as they once did with 'end of use' medications.

Are you far away from the Pharmacy?

[Night_Owl]

Monthly is not fine!  What about the cost CLKD? 

I'm on estrogen patches, Utrogestan, Vagifem - husband on inhaler and statins.

Financially 3 months was do-able, monthly it is not.

[ali 61]

Yes I agree with the above post by CLKD.
I worked as a Pharmacy Dispenser for many years and only retired last year.
The amount of wastage on the NHS for unused items was mind-blowing.
We had literally huge bags and bags of meds collected every week for destruction. Most of it completely un-opened.
But it cannot be given to anybody else at all, or used in another "desperate" country.

This was all mainly due to people simply saying "Oh Yes, tick everything on the repeat slip and I'll have it all". When in reality they had stopped using some items.
Also, when people got 3 - 6 months supply of meds, over the next few months they may stop using those meds (for whatever reason) and then the surplus was wasted. And of course the sad situation where somebody had just got maybe 3 months supply of meds and sadly died.

So the GP's now do 1 month supplies, as a rule, to try to combat this with the hope that when people have to phone up/go into a pharmacy/order on-line etc etc they will just get used to only ordering what they are still actually using.
The time and expense of administering repeat prescriptions is absolutely tiny compared with the billions wasted every year on un-used meds.

Having said that...in some cases the doctors do still sometimes agree to give larger supplies. So its always worth speaking to them on an individual basis.
Definitely for example, if you are going away on holiday etc, then you can get a few months supply in advance.

And of course its always cheaper to have a Pre-Pay certificate if you are getting more than 13 items per year. The Cert costs £104, which works out at just over £8.50 per month.
Hope this helps and that I have explained myself ok? xx

[suzysunday]

It is  a problem. The people who do as the previous post will not pay for their meds and probably get it delivered.  They would not just tick all the boxes if they had to pay.  Also I think that gp's over prescribe especially to the elderly.  They do quick phone consultations and give meds without looking at the patient. They did this with my father for years.

[ali 61]

I absolutely agree with you Suzysunday. It was (in general) people who did NOT pay for their meds who simply ordered everything. No matter how we,in the pharmacy, tried to explain the situation, they just ordered the lot. And of course thats not something the pharmacy can challenge.
I dont know what the total solution is for the NHS wastage. But I do believe the dr's have to at least try to cut back on wasted prescriptions.
But they (the doctors) are so run off their feet, they cant always see every patient constantly. At the bottom line, we the patients have to start taking responsibility for only ordering what we need.

I dont know the answer as to how to stop wastage amongst people who dont pay for it though. Although many are always surprised when we explain that unopened boxes of meds still have to be destroyed. Most people think they can be given to somebody else. Perhaps a public campaign raising awareness of this may help?

This doesnt of course help Night owl with her original post about just 1 months supply. So I hope I havent distracted from your post Night owl.
As I suggested, speak to your doctor and I know that sometimes they are open to giving longer supplies on an individual basis.

[suzysunday]

Yes night owl. In the past my gp said they could give for 3 months if you had to pay. Just  try and be politely pushy!

[CLKD]

I don't have to pay.  For years I pre-paid which for a one-off payment I got every prescription - some ad-hoc, i.e. ABs, the others were regular medications.

It doesn't cost any more to give a monthly supply.  The Pharmacist is there anyway.  Having worked in the NHS and having had elderly relatives in and out of Hospitals, I can see where to save money  .  Only a 1st World Country would destroy medications as we do across the UK!

Ali   61 - it is something that Surgeries need to point out to the patients - ours has a cost per patient that fails to attend as well as the monthly cost of what medications are destroyed.

[Annie0710]

My surgery do monthly, i pre pay so tend to order the lot in one go x

[CLKD]

I have been 'using up' Propranolol as somehow I ordered too much, but it's OK because I still take it.  Now I am more careful on which box I tick.

[racjen]

I don't have to pay for my prescriptions but I'm incredibly careful not to over-order, and yet I sometimes find it's the health professionals themselves who're causing the problems. When I was having cancer treatment I was prescribed a ridiculous number of medications - steriods, anti-nausea, laxatives, completely unnecessary antibiotics, painkillers etc.etc. and once I got through the whole thing I had a massive bagful of stuff that no-one could do anything with. More recently I've had to have the Mental Health Crisis Team visit a number of times and one of the things they do is check that you don't have a stockpile of medications that you're planning to overdose with. So even if it's a medication you might very well need again very soon they take it away and destroy it, and then issue a new prescription.I had to suggest that they just keep it for me and give it back if I needed it - otherwise yet more wastage.