Waste of prescription meds on news 🧐

When I changed GP practices, I went from being able to order 3 months worth of medicines to only 28 days worth.

I think it must be up to the individual practice how prescription medicines are administered. It took me a little while to adjust to the new regime but although I was never guilty of stock piling under the previous system, I can see that it could easily happen.

I find my new GP practice is generally better run and routine drug reviews and follow ups take place which never seemed to happen at the old practice.

I’ve often wished they would give me 3 months at a go, to save the bother😬

I admit to pushing the reorder date forward a couple of days each time till I had a months supply in hand. I wasn’t easy with ordering in my last week. It’s a small pharmacy that the order is sent to and more than once it’s been closed unexpectedly.

So I suppose I’m part of the stockpile.

We can order 2 months worth of prescription medication at a time but we also have annual medication reviews. That seems about right for us.

Two months supply here and with a bit of ordering a bit early here and ordering last minute there I have managed to get it all to synchronise into one order. Hooray!
A different issue is older people who have automatic reorders from their pharmacy but then do not actually take their medication. I was shocked when helping an elderly neighbour to find so much unused medication in the house! Wasteful and worrying too.

Dh had to see if he could take a certain medication without any adverse effects. He took it for 2 days and then had to stop as blood tests came back which indicated he should not take it. We were left with 2 months supply. I returned them to the Chemist but understandably once issued they cannot be given to anyone else.

With my late in-laws, the problem seemed to be that their medication or dosage would get changed from time to time, but they'd often still have a month's supply of the old one remaining.

In my job on the district I found cabinets full of drugs, like gaviscon, pain killers, ear & eye drops.
Even stacks of incontinence pads, usually the older end stock piling.

So it seems that individual practices can give prescriptions for longer than 28 days. I suppose in light of the piece this morning that is probably going stop.
But I agree that stockpiling probs happens when elderly people don’t take their meds and shove them in a cupboard. I had an elderly neighbour years ago who did this. I did mention it to her daughter but obviously is difficult to resolve.

kittylester

We can order 2 months worth of prescription medication at a time but we also have annual medication reviews. That seems about right for us.

I stopped taking my Atorvastatin about 3 months ago. As I was due to have a medication review I just thought I’d monitor my symptoms to see if they stopped so I could report to the Dr.
Symptoms improved. No review in the foreseeable future so I reported what I had done.
I am now having a phone chat with the Dr in 3 weeks time.
I haven’t been ordering any more of course but I think some patients think they have to tick every box.

avalon if your husband was in a try it and see situation then he should only have been given one months supply. It isn’t always the patients fault.

I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but do doctors and pharmacies get paid per prescription. My prescription has not changer for a long time but I asked for a longer one as the pharmacy takes so long and does not always notify when ready I was turned down with no reason given

Plus I am not likely to keel over in next month or so