To find this stockpiling of medications really annoying?

[MindSweeper]

'This medicine was returned by a patient today. Once medicine has left a pharmacy it cannot be reused for safety reasons. All of the inhalers are full. The purple ones alone (all 42 of them) are worth £60 each. That is £2520 worth of medicines that the NHS could be using for something useful'

Medication wastage currently costs the NHS £300,000,000 per year.

It's shocking how much we have to waste in hospitals too, I see how much is destroyed and it makes me think how much good that could do for people in countries who don't have access to meds.

What solutions can you think of?

People are shifting the blame on pharmacists and doctors, but a lot of the time this stockpiling is people just not telling their doctors they're not taking medications, and still ticking the box to receive the med.

classic example of pharmacist taking the piss and getting their £££ in at the expense of the NHS..

Haven't RTFT but I was prescribed iron supplements in liquid form, and I asked for a small amount to start with as sometimes it doesn't agree with me, and I didn't want a huge supply. Of course, they gave me six bloody bottles! I told them I didn't want to take that much as I didn't want to waste it and was told by the chemist that it was too late as they'd put the label on. And of course, predictably, I was only able to take it about a month, then had to stop. Loads of waste. Frustrating.

putting a label on does not count for an item being dispensed. Their item being accepted by the customer does. refuse to accept the item from the pharmacist nezt time

Have skimmed most of the thread so not sure if this has been mentioned, but why is the NHS paying £60 for Seretide inhalers when you can buy them online for £20?

My neighbour has just come out of hospital after a serious back operation. She has been given a walker, commode and various other items to assist her in her recovery. On asking what she should do when she has finished with them, she was told they could not accept them back . Our local Hospice charity warehouse has loads of this type of equipment. Once over it was returned, steam cleaned and re-issued. I would have thought that by steam cleaning these metal/plastic items any germs, etc would be destroyed or am I wrong?

big thing is patients taking it for granted. I'm silly careful with my meds and the epipens needed here because they are lifesaving.

The only thing I 'stockpile' is ventolin inhalers because we need them especially with dust and pollen because I'm allergic. I have 3 at any one time - bag, bed and kitchen - and only order a new one when one runs out. I have to use steroids in my ears and nose as well as inhalers. GP has given me a 'script for the steroid for my ears because tackling the inflammation as soon as it happens is better than leaving it a day or two then needing antibiotics because its become infected. But i can see how people would take advantage of this by filling it straight away then with the meds being wasted. I doubt I will fill it but it saves unnecessary antibiotic use and GPs time for something I'm very capable of dealing with via the pharmacy. Not everyone is though which can be problematic.

My GP always double checks my meds with me and I had a check up this week where specific items were deleted from my repeat and new ones added.

I've found when ordering repeats that blacking out the items I don't need helps make it clear what I do want. GPs are rushed and those little tick boxes on the repeat card aren't always clear and sometimes I feel they prescribe everything on the repeat slip rather than face the abuse from an angry patient who hasn't got their meds on time.

Another thing people don't bother with is medications that have a limited shelf life when opened. One of my inhalers needs to be used within 6 weeks of opening. I mark the date I opened it on the pump. I know some who can never remember and often dispose of them just because they think they are not usable anymore. I do wonder why manufacturers havent put a space on the pump where you can write in biro the date opened. Only thing that works is a sharpie.

The minor ailment thing bugs me a bit too. I can't help but feel some people who can afford to pay for medicines abuse the system. I've never used the minor ailment thing on principle. I can afford to pay for generic calpol for DC or generic piriton and I wouldn't dream of getting nit lotion either. Things should only really be on prescription or free if they cannot be bought elsewhere and yes, I'm on a low income and could probably do with saving the £20 ish if that I spend on DCs over the counter medication and others really cant but if you can afford it then pay for it. It'll ensure the scheme continues to run for those who do need it.

Its the same with prescription paracetamol. I don't know if all pharmacies do but it should be a thing they have to stock a cheap, generic version of popular medicine. this should include generic calpol for children, ibuprofen, gaviscon etc.

Badders123 i wonder if your surgery pharmacy is a doctors dispensary as its in a village? If so, then that means it most likely doesn't have a pharmacist and that could be the reason why you've had such a high error rate using that pharmacy. It's seems crazy that dispensing doctors don't have to have a pharmacist, it's so unsafe.

eBay is awash with emollient pumps such as e45, epaderm and oilatum. People just keep reordering them and selling them on. Shame they can't be marked in some way that they were supplied by the NHS.

This thread has reminded me that I need to go to the GP and get a repeat medication dosage changed. I get monthly prescriptions. Three of the drugs I take two tablets a day so am prescribed 56 or 60. Was wondering why I had a lot of one drug and realised I've been prescribed 112 tablets per month. As I count what drugs I have I haven't got a stockpile but now I know why I didn't need to order that drug last time.

another thing that annoys me - can't the drug companies or the government settle on whether a month has 28 or 30 days. I get confused as I get a mixture of pack sizes.

There needs to be some sort of petition this is a horrific misuse and waste of resources!!! Is all the NHS like this?!

Chrissie...It's attached to the Dr surgery but there is pharmacist - albeit very high turnover of staff
Sometimes you can go in and there are 7/8 members of staff and you can still wait 20 mins for your prescription!
It all seems very inefficient to me

Kanga59
Nutricia are ABSOLUTELY BLOODY AWFUL aren't they?! They only make their soya feeds in the 1L size so when I had my NJ tube in last year I had to waste a load of feed as was. Not as much as the times after I stopped having feed & had meds & fluids only through NJ & drivers would leave deliveries of feed outside my house... After I contacted them to tell them I'd actually had the tube removed so wanted them to cancel future deliveries entirely they reverted from deliveries of water + giving sets + syringes to sending me boxes of feed as well. I gave a passing commuter a bit of a shock the morning I stood on doorstep & twisted up my PJ top then danced in a little circle to demonstrate to the driver trying to force me to accept the delivery that I didn't now have a PEJ instead of an NJ; & was q forceful about fact that while the cats might think that soya+ tubefeed was so delicious it was worth chewing through boxes & chomping into the packs, I wasn't about to start feeding them it... Nutricia also made me miss a whole day of my ballet course when my pump broke as I was setting it up to run my feed overnight & they messed up sending a new one out. I waited in all day & when I rang them to see when it was likely to arrive was told I'd asked them not to send someone. What I'd asked was they not send someone out THEN, as didn't fancy turning out/neighbours being woken at ungodly o'clock by advent of new pump...

I have an awful lot (several hundred pounds worth) of anti-emetic from when I had my NJ in. That I'm embarrassed about taking to a pharmacy. A big part of the reason I had the tube put in was constant nausea & random episodes of vomiting. Which as well as the obvious weightloss & generally being miserable, for me also meant my epilepsy control going decidedly wonky. Oral antiemetics didn't work & I'm allergic to prochlorperazine, the one that comes in pastilles you dissolve in your mouth. NJ to bypass my stomach; ondansetron through the NJ; nausea & vomiting settle; I gain some weight; splendid. End of November I did my repeat prescription for the INCREDIBLE amount of ondansetron needed to get me through the month. GP mix-up means I'm given a 2-month supply. That's fine, just won't order it next month.

Except then I end up in hospital for most of December. And although I take in my own meds, I only take a couple of bottles of the ondansetron. And Daddy would've brought me more of it, I'm sure, had my tube not decided to pack up completely. (You really don't want an NJ tube to back up on you. Although the ondansetron did take the burn off things...). I got switched to Granisetron patches during that admission (there had to be A Special Meeting because NICE says they can only be used by cancer patients during chemo after trying other drugs... they don't like giving out The Magic Patches, possibly cos they're about £50 each my consultant's argument was that £50/week is much cheaper than keeping me in hospital & that it's cheaper than some of my other medication anyway...

I have brittle asthma (type 2) and WRT the issue of prescription exemption I think the answer is exemption should be only for medications for the exempt condition[s] - in inner London practically everyone seems to receive an asthma diagnosis as a child. Obviously they get free prescriptions then anyway. However, if they retain that diagnosis as an adult...

I think prescription exemptions DESPERATELY badly need reviewing. I do wonder about making it so you'd get an exemption for drugs related only to your condition - though new treatments etc might then be hit. Ech.

Trying to keep my prescriptions in balance is impossible btw as not only does GP surgery give me different supplies of 20-something things on my repeat list; any time I go into hospital, whatever they come up with as my TTOs will always send things even further out of synch. And I use one-and-a-bit of my long acting beta antagonist & steroid inhalers each month, so have to order two & very occasionally can have a month off. The GP surgery very rarely get my repeat prescription right, which if it was sent directly to a pharmacy & I either didn't check it on collection or someone else collected for me would mean I then ended up with the wrong things. The times I've to have Daddy get it for me often there are problems as he trusts they've got prescription correct at GP... Am sure a lot of elderly people end up with things because other people control ordering stuff for them & so it just appears in their life, effectively.

Have heard awful stories about elderly people swapping all sorts of drugs round between themselves - including/especially when GPs refuse to prescribe them! And of course, because they know it's "naughty" they don't tell HCPs on admission to hospital that actually in addition to their prescribed drugs they've taken enough Valium to sedate an elephant & half a tonne of beta blockers and that might, just MIGHT, have something to do with their cardiac symptoms. Maybe...

Zebra - sounds horrendous. Hope you are on the mend now?
Ah yes...the elderly swapping meds - another big issue!
My mum came back from ireland with a bag of various tablets my aunt had given her....Anti sickness ones, painkillers....
I was livid.
They all went in the bin.

Honeysuckle if your surgery does electronic prescriptions then it can be sent to any pharmacy in the country so may be able to be sent to one that will deliver for you? They may also be able to order your meds for you to save you taking a repeat to the surgery.

MrsD I think it is really bad practice that your ds only had one inhaler. When dd was first diagnosed with asthma our GP said that we had to have two and to make sure that we always had two available and in date. When she went up to secondary, I asked for another to be kept in the school office and it was prescribed without any problem.
I am sure that this is in accordance with Asthma Society guidelines. Could you point that out to your GP?

I agree exemptions need to be looked at.

I find it very odd, especially now with Gluten free products being so widespread, such a big range and affordable, people still get gluten free goods on the NHS. Its got to be cheaper to get GF pasta from tesco @£2.50/bag than the NHS. Do you really need prescription breakfast cereals when gf versions already exist and are approved? I have genuine coeliac friends (not the lifestylers) who find this use of NHS funds utterly wasteful.

some medications for type 2 diabetes that is usually a weight related illness should be looked at too. The free meds don't give much of an incentive for someone to get off the 8+ tablets a day plus glucose monitoring supplies when weight loss and a prescription for slimming word etc would be of bigger benefit and more cost effective. There would be a better outcome for the patient and few complications - ulcers, nerve damage, kidney damage and the lower weight plus exercise would reduce the risk of heart disease. Type 2 patients are more likely to have a stroke or heart disease. There are lots of studies that show diet, exercise and weight loss has the potential to reduce the need for diabetes medication in a large number of people and even reverse so of the effects.

But I guess popping a pill is easier for many people so It is very very hard to know what to do especially With type 2 and the current obesity trend I can see free type 2 meds being withdrawn because it just wont be sustainable to provide those meds to millions.

Its a contentious issue but one that seriously needs to be looked at and new ways of dealing with it discussed before it gets any worse than it is.

I also have an issue with some homeopathic, alternative and complimentary medicines/treatments being available on the NHS that do not work. I know they are not available everywhere though.

Glucosamine is prescribed, for free, to patients with arthritis and studies show it doesn't actually work. The effects are a placebo at best.

a medicine that doesn't work is a waste of money.

I'll shut up now though. no doubt I've pissed someone off

Given anyone can order pretty much any drug on the internet now, I think the scaremongering about potential prosecution if you give or take meds from a friend needs to be addressed. I have a number of friends with similar chronic pain conditions to mine, all of us have been prescribed various meds that don't work. If I take them back to a pharmacy the response is always "wtf are you doing that for? Just put it in your bin not ours!"

Alternatively we could swap meds between ourselves and save both GP and pharmacists' time. Obviously only for meds we'd already had prescribed. Main problem would be arguing level of pain for PIP or DLA if number of prescriptions issued didn't look like much.

For children though it's free do GF prescriptions are a godsend. Two of mine are wheat/gluten intolerant so it makes a massive difference to get items such as bread, crackers, pasta etc on prescription as its so expensive to buy

Sorry posted too soon....

For those who have to pay yes I can't see why you'd pay the more expensive prescription charge of you can buy the GF item cheaper

My mum is coeliac
She doesn't have the nhs gf stuff because she says it's vile and doesn't stick to a gf diet anyway
But the cost of gf stuff is pretty eye watering so I can understand others using them
My sis is type 2 diabetic - she is actively trying to lose weight with SW - but I agree that throwing pills around is not an incentive
To take
Responsibility for ones own Heath

But that's the point. Is it necessary for GF products - unless very small babies and needed specific milks/foods- to be on prescription? I see GF stuff priced very reasonably. Every supermarket has GF lines.They are so widespread now and competitive in price.

Nairns oatcakes have certified GF ones too that are the same price as the stand line. Yes certified gluten free regular porridge oats are twice the price but there are good, everyday alternatives available.

Breakfast cereals... really? there are lots of GF cereals that have always been gluten free - even before the big GF diet lifestylers shift- and are even approved via coeliac support sites as 'safe'. its easy to live a GF life without prescription items. It just takes a little bit more planning. my Friends attest to this which is why they find it so annoying.

Things like corn tortillas and gram flour torillas are easy to make at home and the cost of corn/fine milled maize and gram flour is the same as regular flour. I regularly make gram flour based lasagna sheets here for the same price as the gluten ones. (my stomach cannot handle regular pasta and it leaves me in a lot of pain) and gram flour batter is common on a lot of indian foods. I used it to make DIY fish fingers with gram flour batter and for a 'breaded' type used polenta that crisped up beautifully in the oven.

I'm just saying that it is doable right now to live a normal life and be GF without prescriptions whilst enjoying a lot of the banned foods everyone loves.

I just see it as inefficient spending given whats available off prescription now and how much more varied our foods are.

Badders123 that's great she is doing it. I think slimming world should be given alongside the drugs initially to get the patients weight down/diet on the right with the hope of reducing the medication. I have relatives with type 2 who say ' why do I need to when these pills do the job?' and sadly its too common :( they are now suffering complications - one has a nasty leg ulcer and nerve damage in their feet and they can't work. They need regular GP appts to tend to the ulcer and some other issues. Something that could've been avoided with a different treatment approach and better attitude to their own health.

Because of this family history of type 2 I actually have a low sugar diet and still haven't got a car just to stay active. It terrifies me to be that ill and immobile just because of a preventable illness.

Its a big irritation of mine to see preventable illnesses not being prevented!

"I see GF stuff priced very reasonably"

Where please? I don't find £3 for a small loaf of bread, or £2 for a few biscuits or £3 for a box of cereal that reasonable. It's isn't possible to replicate a normal western diet cheaply if you are GF. Certainly if you have more than one coeliac in the family it would cost a fortune.
I eat mostly stuff that's naturally GF and cook from scratch to keep costs down but sometimes you just want to grab a sandwich.

And most breakfast cereals are not gluten free. Almost all have barley malt in them, or are milled on machinery that also mills gluten containing cereals so carry a high risk of contamination.

I take various different medications for an autoimmune disease. They are sometimes changed to try out different drugs. My local pharmacist has a list of repeat prescriptions and I just ring to say which ones need replacing and they do repeats for just those. So no waste (or very little, anyway).

My meds run out at different times so it would be odd for them just to send me a batch of everything when I don't need everything at once.

I was recently prescribed a drug in hospital that gave me really awful side effects and the hospital just asked me to take the unused remainder (blister packs) back for the hospital pharmacy.

I'm shocked to read that medications can't be reused if in unopened packaging as that doesn't seem to be the case where I am (SE England).

I agree
Gf food is hugely marked up
Maybe a supermarket voucher would be better for those who can't eat gluten?
Then they would get some choice?
Maybe it would even bring prices down!!