prescriptions

I order mine on line at the Doctors as and when I need them and it goes off to my local chemist, then it all goes a bit awry. Some of the items are frequently in short supply and have a tendency to arrive in dribs and drabs over the course of several weeks and I lose track of what's outstanding and still needing to be delivered. Both of the items in short supply are life threatening if I don't take them so I really can't afford to run out.

Several comments based on the above.

Once meds have been taken out the pharmacy they cannot be reused. Any left over meds can be taken to a pharmacy to be safely disposed of. You should never bin them or put them down the loo.

Where we live the pharmacies are not allowed to monitor and issue prescriptions and the local NHS has saved a lot since they brought in the system. Apparently some pharmacies were claiming for meds which were not given to patients.

We also had issues with it being review time but no one had told us.

We always order ours about a week before we run out to give time to sort out any issues. We order online from our surgery and it doesn't always go to plan. The surgery sends it to the pharmacy online and it is ready very quickly.

Not really relevant but when we go on holiday we always take extra with us in case something goes wrong. Think of the ash cloud which held people up or tour operators going out of business. We also keep it in our hand luggage in case the hold cases get lost.

We order online through a local non chain pharmacy. Our prescriptions are ready in 2-3 days. We usually collect them but can opt to have them delivered. We have to remember ourselves to re-order, but a note to the pharmacist, for example an early request because of a holiday can be done online. We see a practise nurse yearly to update prescriptions.

Used to have repeat dispensing (as opposed to prescribing) set up with local pharmacy, practice would issue 12 months' worth of prescriptions to pharmacy, who would issue drugs every two months on request from me. Only had to go back to the practice once a year for a telephone medication review with BP reading dropped in.

The the pharmacist retired, and it became a chain. Now have to go back to contacting the surgery every two months, which is a nuisance, although bizarrely my HRT was prescribed in one year's supply all at once!

How are people managing the current drugs shortages, ongoing problem for years, some worse than others, but currently in the news? Naproxen seems currently unavailable?

I'm guessing as they can be reused the NHS is not charged twice.

Yes, I have been told once they leave the pharmacy they cannot be reused.

I don't know if the NHS is charged Liz it rarely happens maybe once a year, that I don't need something that's in the bag. The odd occasion I have handed a packet or two back the pharmacist has never said it's a problem.

I had a similar problem with the Boots pharmacy, in Dec and at the beginning of Jan. Up until then everything had worked like clockwork, but something upset the apple cart and my prescriptions were not automatically renewed. I ran out of a couple of meds, but was able to pay for a couple of day of an emergency supply.
I am hoping that this month’s prescription will go through without a hitch. ?

Boots did have a supply chain problem with some drops I needed so I went to another pharmacy down the road and they had it in stock!!! I thought Boots would be more au fait with the ways of stocking drugs but I guess they deal with a lot of people as Boots perhaps is seen as a 'go to' pharmacy.

The nice man from the chemist's who delivers my meds every month told me that once the meds were placed in my hands at the door the meds were not reusable for another customer and even if immediately I handed them back they'd be thrown out.

I order online and it's delivered within 2 or 3 days.
I suppose now and again medications are reviewed ( mine have never been ) then again it's up to me to say if something disagrees with me etc but I do remember there being a blip at the start of this arrangement.

We try not to use Boots now as they have failed us in the past - we did wonder if they were having problems with their supply chain.
Prescriptions from our GP go down to a local independent chemist who is very helpful.

ninathenana, are the drugs that you remove and hand back still charged to the NHS? I doubt the pharmacy would 'undo' their paperwork.

We order on line from our GP and collect from the sort of in house pharmacy about 3 days later. I don't always need everything so only tick what I require. The pharmacy tell me when I collect the last batch before a review is due. This gives me 2 months to get organised.

The pharmacy will only keep filled prescriptions for 6 weeks due to lack of storage.

I use Lloyds Pharmacy after Boots made so many muddles with our prescriptions. I go onto the surgery website log in to Patient Access and order what I need. A good pharmacy should be able to advice how this works in your area.

My pharmacy (Tesco) and GP communicate via PC. I don't have to do anything. I get a text to my phone when my meds are ready for collection every 8 wks. Anything I don't need, I remove from the bag and hand back before leaving the counter.
Couldn't be easier.

My OH has had this exact problem with Boots the chemist .He's been on meds since having heart attacks a few years ago .Never any problems with with repeats until the last few months so we've changed chemist and its all going fine .When I spoke to the pharmacist she said maybe he was due a review of his meds and thats why they didn't automatically make it up .Thats not really good enough though as its pills he has to take every day without a break .

I order my repeat prescriptions online through the GP practice and they send the prescription to my chosen pharmacy. I make sure not to order anything I do not need so there is no waste. It works well.