Prescription papers

[Jux]

I just picked up my monthly repeat prescription. Due to various longterm problems I have, there are nine items.

The dispensing chemist keeps one copy, the one with all the ticks which tells them what I want for next time (Boots, the do the repeats for me), and give me the rest.

I have 4 copies of my prescription. There are 3 pages of pills. I have 12 pieces of paper.

Why? An utter waste; it's bonkers. Normally I don't keep them - I've been on these meds for years now - and the pharmacist throws them away, but this time for some reason I took them with me.

12 bits of paper which I don't need, which nobody needs. Every single month. Who designed this?

SteeperthanHell OK I think I've finally got it.

My meds take up 3 pages.
Each page printed also prints 3 pages of all the repeat meds.
3 x 3 = 9 oh bums!

All right, I give up

I worked in a pharmacy. When the doctors prints your prescription, automatically it fills the backing paper. Once it's printed your full repeat sometimes the remaining backing paper just has your name and address, sometimes it reprints your repeat. Your chosen pharmacy will happily shred the spare ones for you.

Actually the pharmacy doesn’t have to print them at all, we don’t and haven’t for about 2 years. Our IT system allows us to just print the prescription side and it leaves the reorder side blank.
It saves so much paper and ink. We have some patients who prefer a paper copy but it’s easy enough to print them if we need to.