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

I did once get three boxes of BP meds by mistake, tbh, I just kept them in case there was a shortage during Covid.
I just rotate them so that I take the oldest first.
I did ring the Gp to tell them what had happened.

Our surgery issues prescriptions on a 56 day basis. Most patients ask for them to sent to the pharmacy next door. This is a very busy place and often understaffed. They certainly couldn’t cope with the 28 day period.
I think the problems often arise with the hospitals. DH ended up with too much oramorph as well as other drugs. We returned these to the local pharmacy as the hospital is quite far away but they only accepted them very reluctantly.

I think another reason is that some patients deliberately stockpile, and develop a level of anxiety about running out of their medication. We have to watch my mum for this, she’s been known to skip her tablets so she can create spares for later ‘just in case’.

There are also quite a lot of ‘take as required’ medications prescribed, things like paracetamol, which the patient assures the doctor they use, but instead build stockpiles of.

I don’t know if that would affect your holiday insurance (provided you go on holiday of course), if you have stopped taking it on your own decision & not the GPs.
Just a thought PJ1

aonk

Our surgery issues prescriptions on a 56 day basis. Most patients ask for them to sent to the pharmacy next door. This is a very busy place and often understaffed. They certainly couldn’t cope with the 28 day period.
I think the problems often arise with the hospitals. DH ended up with too much oramorph as well as other drugs. We returned these to the local pharmacy as the hospital is quite far away but they only accepted them very reluctantly.

When I was younger, I just thought it was a war thing stock piling stuff.
My aunts all stock pile cleaning stuff & such like when it was buy one, get one free.
I knew loads of elderly people that had cupboards packed to the gills.

I think I might be guilty of this, not just prescriptions medication. I have a cupboard with medical things in such as plasters, paracetamol, cough mixture, ointment, lozenges, etc etc. I keep them topped up. In the utility room, I operate one being used and two in the cupboard for washing liquid, fabric softener, dishwasher tablets, Fairy Liquid etc etc. The same with tinned food in the larder.

I must admit I’ve never really given it much thought as to why. Just copying my mother, my grandparents, aunts etc.

My sister does it too.

with our pharmacy it's 2 months at a time and always get them delivered in 2 days, if it's coming up to Christmas we're always told to make sure we order on time ,so we don't run out of any meds over the holidays.

Can’t say I’m surprised. A friend of ours, no longer with us, used to stockpile so many items - more than once I counted over 60 piled up in his bathroom. More than once they were all thrown away by a visiting ex-nurse friend. TBH they were mostly items that he could have bought in a supermarket or over a pharmacy counter.

The irony is, he was extremely tight, so if he’d had to pay even £2-3 per item, he’d never have accepted so many items he didn’t need.
When he died he left over £1m cash*, and 2 houses paid off.
*which I do know, since dh was a co-executor.