Medication supplies

What you say is quite right maryeliza54 and you're totally correct in saying that we should have respect but surely some items could be salvaged without risk.

I must fall into the lucky category..I recently moved house and while giving me a full check up my GP suggested I have a three month supply of my medications, as in the GP’s words, it would save me having to keep asking for repeats. These are then sent to my local Boots chemist where I pick up my medication and can have a chat with them if there are any problems. Maybe you could have a ask your Dr’s receptionist or secretary about the problems.

Direne when medicine is donated to a developing country, we should respect them enough to make sure what is provided is fit for purpose and hasn't been contaminated in any way or stored improperly

I appreciate the reasoning but still find it disturbing that all returned medication is destroyed when some items could be donated to struggling third world countries.

yes Red I agree in an example like this absolutely.

I have just been old a drug I have been on a long time has now become a "restricted drug" meaning I can only have one month's at a time. Instead of being printed out the go has to handwrite the script and I have to collect and sign for it instead of collecting it from the chemist. This is because it is being used as a top up drug by people who have a drug habit to supposedly enhance their experience so is being sold on the black market for a couple of pounds a tablet which would mean my normal prescription would be worth £230 so I can see the NHS point of view even though it is going to be a pain in the proverbial for me.x

I suppose that surgeries have different systems but my prescriptions can only be reordered by me - not automatically. So if I didn't reorder, then the prescription wouldn't be dispensed and wasted .

Apologies for all mistakes. Typing on my phone is not my forte!

I’m on medication and so is my husband, but similarly we only get a months at a time. Mine doesn’t really change but his does. Once a prescription leaves the surgery it cannot be returned, even if it’s never been opened...it just has to be binned. I’ve been in the surgery several times when bags and bags of unused prescriptions have been returned, either due to death or a change in medication. I think that it is this waste that doctors are trying to eliminate. This summer my husband was in intensive care for several weeks, during this time his prescription needed picking up but I told the pharmacist I wouldn’t take it. He was being medicated in hospital and I knew when he left his drugs would change and his old prescription for some fairly expensive drugs would be superfluous and ,if I’d taken them home they would be wasted.

Warfarin is limited to one month here in NWLondon because of safety concerns. There has been over prescribing of meds and as Maw pointed outbwhen someone dies all meds are thrown out. Prescribing only fortnightly seems harsh to me. See the pharmacist about it. I also travel but i can get the doctor overseas to prescribe thise which are available but for one thatbis not avaisblevmy gp here gives me a prescription. It is not due to Brexit. You could just as likely said there is moe demand as medicine advsnces and a growing population plus msny oldiesvliving longer. I do hope your friend gets hrlp.

I don't think it has anything to do with Brexit as such - GP's and other skilled people move back and forth all the time. My daughter needs Durogesic patches to help manage the pain she is in - her prognosis is that she will, most likely, need them for the rest of her life yet her GP will only issue a one month prescription for them at a time. During the Summer the patches often fail to stick for the required 3 days so she uses more than her normal prescription but it is hard work getting the surgery to authorise a further prescription. I think it is more down to the fact that GP's control their own budgets now and they don't want the expense of issuing prescriptions that might not get used. They really should be able to see where that will cause problems though and make an exception, especially for people like your friend.

I've just been diagnosed with pernicious anemia. Does anyone else have it. I don't know how else to post it as a heading

And if you are the type of irresponsible patient who doesn't take their medicines, then how often you can reorder them will hardly turn you into someone sensible will it?

If a GP thinks that a patient is wasting medicines, they should tackle them individually, not make sensible compliant patients like myself and DH have to keep reordering every 4 weeks the medicines we need to keep alive. It's also more work for the surgery staff

It is estimated that unused medication costs the NHS and therefore the taxpayer about £300 million a year. That is one good reason for monthly prescriptions.
Also pharmacists need to be paid for their work and get a fee tor each prescription dispensed.

Our GP surgery does 8 weeks at a time. This is efficient in terms of time and resources. It would irritate me to have to reorder every 4 weeks and I’m sure the surgery has better things to do - both admin staff and doctors.

I am on medication for Type 2 Diabetes which is only prescribed 28 days at a time. I had a phone call from the Surgery this morning to say that a medication I take for Peripheral Neuropathy (not Diabetes related) is to be regulated to 28 days in future as it is now a Controlled Drug. All my other medications are for longer periods.

I don't think this has anything to do with the Government or NHS rationing. Pharmacists are often best people to discuss medications with, mine does my Annual review not GP. Although they cannot prescribe they have a greater awareness of medications due to their training. A good Pharmacist will always advise if you need to discuss any problems with your GP.

I am very surprised any-one could get more than 2 months supply of medication except in unusual circumstances.

It must cost more in pharmacy time, GP prescription writing time, nurse time and certainly MY time to have my one daily tablet (bp) prescribed for two months at a time, rather than three monthly or six monthsly, as prescribed previously.

GrandmainOz - it might be that a consultant can prescribe medication for six months at a time, and a GP can’t.

Do hope it’s sorted out for your friend soon.

I don't think the political situation will affect supplies, but shortages of drugs seem part of life now, recently it was Naproxen, which now seems to be available again. CCGs are cutting down on the amount you can have at one time, I used to be able to get one year's supply of scripts, for drugs I will be on for the rest of my life, sent to the pharmacy so I just rang them up when I needed another two months' supply. (Repeat Dispensing) I am told that is now being stopped, and I will have to go back to the surgery every two months, which is a waste of everyone's time.

Very helpful, Gabriella, not!

The government have made it clear that contingency plans for medication were one of their first priorities and arrangements for that are already in place. Please don't worry x

From my experience it is a question of economy triggered by the quantities of drugs most people especially the chronically sick keep at home usually for very good reason I hasten to add.
BUT on that persons death all the drugs held must be returned and are destroyed
We ecperienced this with paw whose life limiting illnesses involved a vast raft of drugs which were essential on a daily basis and occasionally compromised by glitches in.the productipn/supply chain.
After his death we returned 2 big plastic boxes of meds - many of them very expensive such as immunosuppressants.
So prescribing 6 months supply as a matter of course is bad practice from the point of potential waste

I think people expect too much.
1 months supply is commonplace.
Be thankful that you have relatively easy access to pharma. Many people don't know what clean water is.

I'm not sure how much this is to do with Brexit but to do with a lack of funds and over prescribing. My daughter is in bits as she has a condition that many GP's don't really understand but means that the way she metabolises the standard medication has no effect on pain levels. She has to have Morphine and Diclofenac, the former heavily regulated and the latter no longer prescribed because of the side effects. As she has moved house, the Dr has said she has to move surgeries and she is terrified that the new GP won't understand her condition so won't prescribe what is necessary for her to live a reasonably pain free life. It has taken so long to get to a place where she is able to do things, the thought that she might go backwards is just unthinkable.

I know how it feels, a diabetic magazine said that it was going to be hard getting my particular insulin, I have been on it for 40+ years apart from when I was tried on something else and reacted badly. I asked if this was true and was assured by my doctor there would be no problem.
Last month I had my diabetic review at the hospital and was told my animal insulin was stopping being produced and I had to go on to the human one, no other choice, seems a big coincidence though.
I am so worried as if it goes wrong again there is no going back this time