Pharmacists and GPs across NHS Greater Manchester are urging people to only order the medication they need from their repeat prescriptions.
In Primary Care in the 2023-2024 financial year, 67 million items were dispensed in Greater Manchester costing £570 million in total, and of those prescriptions, an estimated 75% being repeat prescriptions – many of which were unused and wasted unnecessarily.
That’s why NHS Greater Manchester have joined forces with NHS England, NHS North West, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria, to launch a new campaign asking people to check their order to help reduce waste and save money.
Kenny Li, Chief Pharmacist at NHS Greater Manchester said:
“We want to remind everyone how important it is to check what medicines they have at home before placing their repeat prescription order.
“We know that a significant amount of these repeat prescription medicines are not used and returned to pharmacies for destruction – and that ordering unnecessary medication can increase the risk of medicines shortages in pharmacies.
“We want to make sure essential medications are available to those who need them the most, which is why, with the support of our communities, we hope that we can make a difference and improve the number of unused medicines. Ensuring everyone has the right medicine and the right care, while reducing the amount of medicine waste.
“For example, during the last financial year alone, 31.5 million items were ordered by residents 65 and over in Primary Care, dispensed at an average of £7.54 per item – amounting to a total cost of £237.7million. Simply by reducing the number of unnecessary items ordered by 2% it would result in a reduction of 630k items and save NHS Greater Manchester approximately £4.75million.
“Thank you to the many people who already do this.”
If you have questions about your prescription medicines, or those of a family member or person you provide care for, community pharmacy teams can help. When ordering repeat prescription medicines, here are some key tips to bear in mind:
- Only order the medication if you need it – repeat items still remain on your prescription if you don’t order it every month
- Try keeping all medication in one safe place at home so you can see what you have left and what you need to look to reorder.
- For each prescription, take medication from one pill packet at a time so that you can keep a track of what you’ve taken and what you have left
- Make a note on your calendar 7 to 10 days before your prescription due date to go through your medication and see what is left. Being organised in this way means that if bank holidays or weekends are coming up, you will have planned enough for these dates too.
- It can be challenging supporting someone with dementia or other cognitive conditions to manage their prescriptions, so with the person’s consent all community pharmacies can also prepare pre-organised packs by day and time of day to help.
If you have questions about your prescription or need some support, speak to your pharmacy team. Unused or out of date medicines can be returned to your pharmacy for safe disposal.
As well as encouraging the people of Greater Manchester to check before ordering prescriptions, other initiatives have been put in place to help reduce the waste of medication. For instance, a Greater Manchester system working group has been meeting to support a consistent approach to Patient-Led Ordering of medicines in areas where it has not been adopted yet. The group is supporting general practices across the city-region to promote the use of the NHS app to empower patients to order repeat prescriptions, access their prospective medical records and where available, make routine appointments – helping patients to be in control of their own health and managing medication.
Karen O’Brien MBE, Regional Chief Pharmacist, NHS England - North West said:
“I am delighted to be working with each Integrated Care Board in the North West on this really important work to raise awareness of the amount of medication that is wasted every year. I also want to reassure people that your GP will continue to prescribe medication for as long as you clinically need it, but if you aren’t due to run out, you don’t need to over-order, that medicine will be there for you when you need it.”
In addition to asking the public to only order the medication that they need, the NHS is also encouraging the people to take medication into hospital should they be admitted, whether it’s planned or unplanned. This helps staff in hospital to have a complete record of medicines and means the hospital won’t need to dispense more of the same medication and can speed up care.
To see the campaign and for more information visit https://gmintegratedcare.org.uk/keep-well/only-order-what-you-need/.