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.

I worked temporarily at an old people's home, and one day I cleaned out the medicine cupboard. Certain patients had regular prescriptions that were simply delivered by the pharmacy (no need for represcriptions) and clearly no-one had been monitoring this.

In a home with 25 patients, I found 7.5 LITRES of lactulose! When a normal dose was 10ml.

I found 7.5 LITRES of lactulose!

Words just can't even..

That's enough to get a whole herd of elephants shitting

Don't know about seratide but I don't think you'll find a good reason for anyone to have 42 inhalers of any type tbh. I do have a brown inhaler that I have to use for a minimum of a month at a time during s bad patch but again, not at all in a good one. I wasn't really disagreeing w you - dfil in law was a pharmacist who researched drugs wastage at the hospital he worked in - it was a huge problem. Just pointing out that not all meds are ' finish the course'

It makes me so angry - I've come across a number of people whose attitude is "well X is unemployed and gets free prescriptions and worked all my working life so I'm just making sure I get my share".

I also know someone who gets her asthma prescription filled for her adult son, because she's exempt from prescription charges and he doesn't want to pay for inhalers. So his asthma nurse thinks he's taking a lot less medication than he is. It's so dangerous and also such a dishonest use of NHS resources.

Mindsweeper, delivery would have definately helped her. They didn't do that where she lived. It was heartbteaking to see her struggle with day to day necessary stuff. It would be nice and beneficial if people could get automatic deliveries. Also for forgetful people this could help.

Natsku...many of people I'm talking about get free meds.
I think that is the issue though, yes.
I think after 65 you should still pay if you are financially able to.
(Not a popular view around here!!!)
The only people who should be exempt from px charges should be children, those with life long conditions (it's a disgrace asthma isn't included!) and those who are on a low income/benefits.
Everyone else should pay and they should cost more.

Well....if you actually work where they were returned...one solution I can definitely think of is....SHAME ON YOU! You have no right to take a photo and comment as you have......it is certainly none of your business why this has happened...there may be a valid reason! I am registered disabled and have a considerable amount of medication delivered monthly.....what I do o don't use is my own business and no one else's....this has really upset me....

Ah yeah I get you barbarian. I did see the suggestion that people should hand in empty ones to receive a new one, but because of the things you spoke about, it wouldnt work

I was feeling bad about unused medication prescribed for DS but it's not nearly on that level! He has migraines and went through a bad stage last term. We now have beta blockers, a preventative, and two types of painkillers that didn't work. The main issue was the GP prescribing too many though. Three months supply even though we didn't know if they would work.

forever

Get a grip.

I didn't take this photo actually, but I am a HCP and this is something we need to have a frank conversation about without the hysterics you're bringing to it.

When such waste is removing 300,000,000 from the NHS every year, yes it is people's business.

£300,000,000 a year

how much of that is due to pharmacists who dish out the wrong prescription ?

Personally I wish there was a way mis/over prescribed meds could be used in poorer countries.

Doset boxes, I take an obsene amount of med's and get then issued weakly in a box with day and time slots. When I recently moved my grandparents we found a huge stockpile of med's, I got then changed to doset boxes too, problem solved.

I agree it's a terrible waste. However, I also don't think we should make people feel bad when people return it for safe disposal either. Now saying you are, but when my MIL died and we cleared her house, I collected a bin bag of medication. Everything from statins to warfarin, diuretics,inhalers, codiene based drugs, sleeping pills and morphine. I took it into the pharmacy and was made to feel absolutely shit by the pharmacist who gave me a lecture - in public - about how much wasted money there was, and how many district nurse days it would pay for. Recently bereaved, upset and exhausted after non stop caring for weeks, and I burst into tears. Whereupon he shook his head in disgust and walked off with the bag. I still wish I'd challenged him for his total rudeness and lack of empathy. The other issue is when do done is on something they'll need for life - eg, I have Hashimotos. I'm never going to not need thyroxine, and I do feel stressed if I realise I'm going to be away from home when the prescription runs out, but at the time I'm leaving, it's too early to get a repeat without seeing the doctor to explain why - another waste of resources. So I have gradually accumulated a cushion by consistently going a 'little' early. But I haven't accumulated 60 packets! I'd be seriously pissed off if I had yo save the blister packs to get more though, as a PP suggested.

Forever...why do you have piles of unused meds??
That is a bad use of NHS resources.
Shame on YOU
And it is the business of every single tax payer who pays for them!!

The flip side is, when people can't afford the medication too

Before my Dh became tax credit exempted, there were times when he couldn't afford to buy medication.

And it was ventolin inhalers he desperately needed.

how much of that is due to pharmacists who dish out the wrong prescription ?

I don't think there's data for that, but I suspect that would be a drop in the ocean considering the stringent checks pharmacists have to make.

Thanks arf and Mind I could actually run a pharmacy at the minus I reckon. It's actually quite stressful managing all of the medicines.

I will hand it in next time I go to the pharmacy.

*minute

After my dad died I took his unused meds to the pharmacy.
No issues.
I think I might get my mum moved over to those boxes you know....she isn't that mobile any more.

Soubriquet...as I said earlier...it's disgusting that asthma is not covered by exemption.
My sis and bil are both type 2 diabetic and stinking rich.
They think it's hilarious they get free prescriptions! 😡😞

Here in Ireland, unless you are on social welfare benefits, you usually have to pay for medication. It's capped at €144 a month though so no matter what you are prescribed, that's the most you should have to pay a month. It cuts down on a lot of stockpiling.

Children under 5 have free GP visits, but the average GP visit is about €50-75, seeing a nurse is about €30. (Apart from people who qualify for a medical card - its free for them) Most people who have to fork out the best part of €100 between a GP appointment and medications plus lose a days wages generally wont unless they are genuinely sick.

I cant say our Health Service is all that though. The hospitals are dire. Overcrowding, lack of beds, under funded, front line staff massively overworked and people on trollies in our A&E depts so our system might not be much better.

Maybe if they had to pay small dispensing charge per item they might be less likely to waste it?

There's a big difference between half boxes of meds that haven't been used because someone has died or they had medication changes rendering them obsolete verses the stockpiling of meds because someone has decided they don't want to use them but continue to get them on their monthly script.

Sweeper...I live in a village and that's happened to me twice in the last year! 😡

It is terrible

Asthma is a killer so why is it charged for?

He is exempted bow, but if we become no longer exempted I will budget to afford them.

You don't mess about with asthma

That's ridiculous Badders! Concerning. I'm on quite a few meds and in the past decade I've never been given the wrong thing, and I've had various pharmacists.