Unable to return/reuse prescription medicines

That was a teaser SueDonim! ?

I would have thought cobbling together her IVF drugs free from kind Facebook friends would have been very risky, even if cheap. After reading this thread, how would you know how they had been stored or how old they were?

My DH also had anti- coagulants after breaking his ankle. We were told how expensive they were! Luckily, he used all his up.

The waste of prescription drugs is shocking, and when you hear how the NHS struggles, you can see why.

SueDonim

You couldn’t tell whether the seemingly-sealed boxes had been repackaged or similar. My friend is a quality control pharmaceutical chemist of long-standing. You honestly wouldn’t believe the things people do to medications - your hair would stand on end.

Make my hair stand on end please. It's been looking a bit flat lately.

I have returned a few packs of medication but never ask anything. I just hand them over. I dare not ask in case the reply makes me incandescent with rage, which it probably will.

My mother was a nurse in the 1940s and I still have her syringe and some tiny bottles of liquid in phials. They used the same syringe for different patients (shock horror) obviously sterilized most carefully. Very sensible I thought, but the only not so good aspect was the size of the needle!

You couldn’t tell whether the seemingly-sealed boxes had been repackaged or similar. My friend is a quality control pharmaceutical chemist of long-standing. You honestly wouldn’t believe the things people do to medications - your hair would stand on end.

Many years ago, in France, we used to return unused medicines to be reused. However, it stopped as is was found that some was being resold. Now, we return them to the chemist’s to be destroyed.

When my husband died I had a substantial amount of morphine etc. left in the house. While he was alive the nurses kept a record and once when a small amount was missing it was treated as a major incident. It had slipped down the side of the chair.
After his death I asked the nurses to take away all the medication but they told me they were not allowed to do so. I was told to take it to the pharmacy to be destroyed but I couldn’t face having to explain my husband had died to a stranger and I was appalled it couldn’t be reused.

I eventually gave it to an organisation which ships unwanted medication to Africa.

The other reason is even if the box is sealed they cannot guarantee the box was stored as per the boxes instructions, ie, out of the sun, or kept cool etc. Imagine if someone was seriously harmed or died from drugs that were ineffective because they had been handed back after not being stored correctly. They can’t take the risk of hurting people or being sued.

There are alternatives. My friends daughter was doing ivf privately and cobbled together her drugs free from Facebook groups from kind other mothers to be donating their surplus from successful rounds who no longer needed them. It would have cost her thousands just for the drugs otherwise.

You maybe able to give them away online in a closed forum or group. There are also groups taking medical donations for Ukrainian and the like, do some research I'm sure you will find a grateful recipient.

2 black sacks full of my daughters meds had to be disposed of.
That's without all the walking aids at my mums that I was told to just throw away.

SueDonim

Once medications have been removed from oversight by medical/pharmacy staff the contents cannot be guaranteed not to have been tampered with. That’s why they won’t be reissued.

But in our case these were sealed boxes! They couldn't have been tampered with. When I explained this the reply was that "they could have been stored in unsuitable conditions" - what rubbish! If that was the case, surely they would be dangerous for the person they were prescribed for too!
I've searched online for charities that could use them, either here or abroad, but it appears to be against UK law.

Once medications have been removed from oversight by medical/pharmacy staff the contents cannot be guaranteed not to have been tampered with. That’s why they won’t be reissued.

Greyduster

I took a pack of blood thinning tablets that had been included with DH’s meds when they should have been taken off his prescription. The lady in the chemist said they were only allowed to take them if I removed them from the packaging (which had not been opened) first! She was not allowed to do it; I had to do it and dispose of the packaging. I had never heard of anything so bizarre!

Same thing happened to me on numerous occasions. I was again advised last week that I must remove the medication from the packaging. My medication is forever being changed, so much so, that initially my GP only issues a prescription for one box, as I have too many reactions to new meds. That sounds sensible to me.

I can only assume, removing from the box is to do with patient confidentiality. I could of course, be totally wrong!

I took a pack of blood thinning tablets that had been included with DH’s meds when they should have been taken off his prescription. The lady in the chemist said they were only allowed to take them if I removed them from the packaging (which had not been opened) first! She was not allowed to do it; I had to do it and dispose of the packaging. I had never heard of anything so bizarre!

It absolutely is. I am on a prescription medicine which was changed recently. Similar medicine different dosage. There was already a prescription of the original medication at the pharmacy already. I explained and left the one there. If I had just taken it out of the shop , never mind home it who’d have been thrown away, they never reissue in case something goes wrong and they are sued! It’s a scandal, it wastes so much money. As long as it’s still in the original packaging what’s the problem?