Pharmacist backs crackdown on unused medicines (From Daily Echo)

City NHS hit with £1m bill for people ordering un-needed prescriptions

4:30pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in News By Melanie Adams, Health Reporter

A pharmacist has spoken of the shocking cost of stockpiling prescriptions as the war on wasted medicines was officially launched in Southampton.

The Co-operative Pharmacy in Thornhill is the first in the city to back the NHS in a crackdown on the £9m worth of medicines wasted in Hampshire every year.

The Daily Echo has launched its Bitter Pill Campaign to encourage patients to stop and think before they order prescriptions they simply do not need.

In Southampton alone the cost of wasted medicines is £1m a year.

Jennifer Ndichu, The Co-operative Pharmacy manager, said: “Unfort-unately we tend to see the true extent of the problem when someone dies and their relatives come in with all the medicine that was never used. In one case a lady came in after the death of her husband with three black bin bags full of medication, which totalled £6,800.

“This really is a serious problem – people just don’t realise the money they are wasting by ordering prescriptions they do not need so we are speaking to every customer, asking them to stop and think before they reorder their whole prescription and talking them through each medicine on the list to ensure they are needed.”

Once medication leaves the pharmacy, even if it remains unopened, it cannot be reused. All GPs and pharmacists are being urged to back the campaign by discussing medication with their patients to ensure only that which is absolutely vital is dispensed.

Ms Ndichu said one of the main reasons for so much waste is the fear of patients that if they do not reorder their prescription every month, their doctor will stop it.

“This simply is not the case”, she said. “Patients need to be made aware that it will not mean the end of their prescription. This is why this campaign is so important and why we are actively involved in it.”

To get your pharmacy or doctor’s surgery involved in the campaign ring Melanie Adams on 023 8042 4500 for one of our posters. Are you a patient who stockpiles your prescription? Tell Melanie Adams.