Waste of prescription meds on news 🧐

I've also known people with huge stocks of incontinence pads, because there isn't the option to "pick and choose" what they actually need.
They have to try and persuade other people to have some, because the packs take up a lot of room.

It all seems very hit and miss regarding prescriptions. My husband has a catheter at the moment and a nurse ordered a new batch for him. I went to collect them and there were boxes and boxes of them. So many I’ve had to store them in the garage. Same when my son ordered nutritional drinks. We got so many crates of them that the receptionist had to help me carry them out to the car!

My late Mum had a colostomy and used stoma bags, disposal bags, adhesive remover, dry wipes and air fresheners, all on prescription. She was very careful in ordering just what she needed but the Stoma Nurse told us it was not unusual for her to find £2,000-£3,000 worth of supplies in some homes.

We all know nothing can be returned once it has left the dispensary so this really does need looking at.

I take one tablet a day of a certain prescription drug, and have done for years.

I say 'one tablet a day' but every Saturday I don't take one, in the daft belief it will make it less difficult to give them up if I ever choose to.

I now have 18 months worth of stockpiled tablets. So that's how it happens.

MT62

Same with us. Dad had boxes of incontinence pads because he switched to bags. NHS would not collect them. In the end I took them to the hospice which they gratefully took off my hands.
Our gps don’t give gaviscon, eyedrops, or vitamins any more, quite right too.

Not so long ago I saw someone advised to go to her GP for nit treatment. Presumably she’d have been told pretty sharpish that it was readily available to buy….

AFAIK GPs have stopped prescribing items that can easily be bought in supermarkets, or over a pharmacy counter.

I read not so long ago that every prescription costs £7 in admin, even for a pack of paracetamol. Probably even more now.

When I had shingles (not as badly as some people get it) I was pleased that the GP advised buying the stronger painkillers at a pharmacy - she didn’t give me a prescription.

I have to order all my repeat prescriptions via Patient Access. I check this each week (on Fridays), and that lists my current medications, and the date on which I can re-order. As it is all computerised it will not accept a re-order request until the listed date. So for some meds. I sometimes have to miss a day or two of taking them as by the time that prescription gets to my pharmacy (need to allow at least 48 hours), and I can collect it, means I have run out.

Same with us. Dad had boxes of incontinence pads because he switched to bags. NHS would not collect them. In the end I took them to the hospice which they gratefully took off my hands.
Our gps don’t give gaviscon, eyedrops, or vitamins any more, quite right too.

Witzend

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.

Blinking heck 😳 no wonder he had a good bank account.
I once had bad indigestion, my mil, told me that say ‘Elsie’ next door had ten bottles of gaviscon, to knock on her door & ask for a bottle.
She literally gave me a teaspoon full.
She was another who left a good bank book I believe.

I am on 8 different drugs but most are long-term and the dosage doesn't change. We can get 84 days at a time. I do tweak the order a bit to make sure we don't run out. DH is on fewer drugs but has had a few changes, plus he misses at least 25% of his doses so last time I didn't order him any at all. Nobody batted an eyelid.

A couple of years ago he had a leg ulcer that needed fresh dressings twice weekly. The nurse gave him a huge bag of these that he had to take to her every time - till another nurse decided to use a different dressing and gave him another huge bag of those, and then a THIRD nurse....... You get the picture? They are all still in my landing cupboard probably out of date.

He also wears support stocking as a result of excessive leg swelling and they send a new pack of three pairs every time. We have boxes and boxes of them unused, despite telling them we don't need any more.

I've got a couple of extra boxes of statins because first the dose and then the type was changed. I've also got a little stockpile of bloodthinners after a prescription mix up. I'm glad to have them because they are one thong I really don't want to run out of if there are any problems with supply.

My DH is only given 28 days worth, but we are often given an item that is on his repeat but we only ever need to use occasionally (lancets) if I don't notice when I am in the pharmacy , they won't take them back and tell me to bin them, it seems such a waste. I currently have 3 boxes in the cupboard.
I am going to ask if it can be removed from his repeat as we have more than we will ever need.
I used to know someone who ordered their repeat prescription every month but didn't take the tablets.

I was discharged from hospital with a huge bag, containing all the medication I already had at home.
Then, of course, it took a long te to try and get the pills in order, by which time I'd already had another delivery.

A while ago post hospital discharge my prescription had been changed on surgery got it wrong. Next month I opened the bag to check. It was wrong again but was told because the bag had been opened it could not be given to another patient. Even though it had not been out of the bag or even touched

ViceVersa

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.

Yes, mine too. Think this is common.

Silvershadow

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.

Oh we are coming to you if WW3 breaks out SS 😂

Also, for me, a problem is the gp giving me pills, the hospital changing or stopping them and the non communication between them all.
It sometimes takes well over a month to wean on/off medication amd I end up with surplus, because the whole process has to start again.

It happens because people either just keep ticking all the boxes when they don’t need a specific medication, or they have their meds on a monthly delivery scheme and get items delivered that they don’t need, or they simply don’t bother taking their medication correctly and just keep stockpiling !

We both select what we need at the time although we’re constantly asked ‘let us book your meds and deliver for you’…….no thanks!

Still teying to get some eyedrops taken off my prescriptiom, as the label states clearly to be used for three months.
It's been around two years now.
I had a medication review a couple of months ago, where I yet again pointed this out, and sure enough, next time, there they were again in my bag of meds.

Sometimes people don't actually take the medication they have on repeat but don't tell the doctor they're not taking it. A lot of people are non compliant.

At my last surgery, 3 monthly and it was a shock to the system when I discovered it was a monthly pickup.. A neighbour told me to ask, and I now have them prescribed 2 monthly. I would like to get my drugs synched and delivered 2 monthly which I would have to pay for but at present with difficulty I pick them up in dribs and drabs. It is a large pharmacy with usually 10 pharmacists working there. I have been going for many years so they know me well.

We get two months supply on repeat prescriptions. Mine are for BP. BP is measured and sent to GP monthly and they review the BP results 6 monthly. They'd know from those results, if I wasn;t taking the medication. The pharmacy which receives the electronic prescription from GP and dispenses it, would know if I didn't collect it.

DH is taking a statin, blood test annually to assess the effect.

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.

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.

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.

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 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