£3m a year wasted on unused prescriptions
Date published: 20 January 2012
Dr Ian Wilkinson is leading a team to stop medicine wastage and is appealing to patients for their help
PATIENTS in Oldham are being asked to help save £3 million every year by stopping wasteful repeat prescriptions.
Around one in 12 people in the borough have received prescription medicines they either do not need or use.
In the past eight months alone, NHS Oldham has spent £16,518 on disposing of wasted medicines, money which doctors and pharmacists say could be better spent in other areas.
It also means GPs do not have a proper picture of what medicine patients are actually taking.
Now NHS Oldham is cracking down on wasted medicines and is appealing for patients to help take back control on repeat prescriptions.
Oldham GP Ian Wilkinson heads up the new Oldham NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, which is taking over responsibility for NHS services locally. He said: “This has to stop. Patients are getting medicines they don’t want, the NHS is being charged for it, medicines are stockpiling in people’s houses, and GPs are assuming that the patients are taking the medicines as prescribed.
“To make things worse the NHS has to then pay for unused medicine to be safely disposed of as no one else is allowed to use something prescribed to one individual, so it costs taxpayers twice.”
About 80 per cent of medicines ordered on repeat prescription in Oldham are by people who have ongoing conditions. GPs’ repeat-prescribing systems mean patients can pick up further prescriptions without having to see their doctor. But as pharmacies have increasingly ordered repeat prescriptions on behalf of patients over the past few years, there have been increased cases where every item on the prescription is ordered each month, without knowing whether it is needed or wanted.
Patients are being urged to speak to their doctor about which medicines they use and to check they are using them properly.
