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.

Have only read half the thread, but IME a lot of this is GPs themselves.

DH has chronic prostatitis and has been prescribed a whole family-sized pack of anti-bs for when it flares up. It just sits on our kitchen counter.

In early 2014, my long-term kidney problem flared up and I went to the GP for some effective pain relief. I still have the pack of tramadol he prescribed me .

Neither of us asked for such enormous amounts of drugs. We just got given them.

Mind I see my consultant next week so will be asking him to include in his report to the GP a request that they move to a longer prescribing period.

Also, although I think it is definitely patients' responsibility to not abuse the NHS, I also am quite suspicious of threads seeking to blame patients for the NHS's financial woes.

We get this with the junior docs, too: oh, those greedy doctors, striking for more money.

And then with patients: oh, they're all just time-wasters, swanning down A&E on a Friday night for their weekly prescription of paracetamol.

Like with threads on benefits claimants, yeah, some of that will be true.

But looking at the bigger picture, it's just distraction from where the real wastage and abuse goes on wrt the NHS. Hint: 11 Downing St.

One of our biggest problems is that DS is on a lot of medication, a lot of it is trial and error but rather than giving us a trial sized dose of something they give us a whole load of it and if it doesn't work we end up returning huge crates of wasted products.

Currently we have in the cupboard 24 x 4 packs of chocolate forti creme, 40 bottles of fortini smoothie, DS won't drink/eat them and they can't be re distributed.

I have asked and asked for trial sized doses and always get told that they only dispense one size of product.

Jonny, make a routine appointment with your GP (or rather your DH should) and talk about your/his medication requirements. It is fairly standard to prescribe repeat meds in 1 or 2 months supplies.
Most painkillers come in pack of 30 or 100 tablets.
A course of antibiotics for a man should be at least 1 weeks worth; for prostatitis much longer.

Speak to your doctors about what you need/don't need. None of us can guess or predict or know what's going on in your lives.

honey, have you spoken to your practice manager about why you have to attend the surgery in person to request your prescription? That seems rather unnecessary. And yes, ask consultant to put something in his letter. Or, guess what, speak to your GP

PacificDogwod

I am wondering whether a prescription charge of £1, you know just enough to make people realise they should value what they are getting, across the board/no exceptions (with prepaid quarterly/annual prescriptions for those who have loads of meds), might stop some of this kind of thing,

Wonder away - it'll never happen. Even if there was a political will from a Tory party hellbent on dismantling the NHS (so every "crisis" for us, is another opportunity for them), you will get shouted down by the cries "not everyone can afford it". It would be interesting to see if anyone has done some serious research into where most patient-led wastage (missed appointments etc) in the NHS comes from.

That's quite stupid that they don't dispense trial size packs. When I start a new medicine the pharmacist usually asks do I want to take the smallest pack (usually 10 pills or so) or the whole prescription and I always take the small pack to make sure it works for me before taking the rest of the prescription.

Also, although I think it is definitely patients' responsibility to not abuse the NHS, I also am quite suspicious of threads seeking to blame patients for the NHS's financial woes.

I think it's important to look at the contributory factors though, regardless of how much money (or how little) the government is giving us.

The problem is the government and their strangulation of funds yes, but even if that wasn't the case we have money flowing out of the NHS because of things like this.

That's appalling!

Oh, I know it won't happen, I'm just musing.
This is on the background of living/working in Scotland where prescription charges were abolished a few years ago and the demands for sun cream on prescription suddenly sky-rocketed
Prior to that the charges were way too high and totally illogical: if you had an underactive thyroid ALL your meds were free, if you were on several antihypertensives ALL your meds demanded a prescription fee.

I'm sure the research has been done.

I've now seen hospital appointment letters that say something like "please contact us before your appointment if you cannot make it so your appointment can be used for somebody else. Every wasted appointment costs the NHS £156" or words to that effect (I cannot remember the exact sum).
I mentioned this to somebody the other day who had made and not attended 5 appointments in 2 weeks, 2 of which were on-the-day/emergency appointments. He then got very shirty with me, implying this was money in to my own pocket .
There service is free at the point of use, and is therefore not valued for the fabulous concept that it is (and I am saying this as somebody who has lived and worked and been a patient in several different countries).

People who remember a time before the NHS are dying out and many who abuse the system do not think about a system in which they might have to chose between seeing the doctor or heating their house or buying groceries.

It would be interesting to see if anyone has done some serious research into where most patient-led wastage (missed appointments etc) in the NHS comes from
That's another interesting point, DNA's cost 162million. I know the surgery I go to has drastically reduced this by offering appointments for the next day only. It's a pain in the arse having to ring in the morning and if the appointments for the next day are gone then well, you just have to try again tomorrow, but it's saving money so I can't complain.

pacific I had to speak to someone's GP because they'd DNA'd 62 appointments in a year (he was having to come in t.i.w for dressing changes). Never rang up to let anyone know ever. These were hour long appointments too.

Oh and if we're talking about how disgraceful it is that things aren't exempt, try having cystic fibrosis and not have diabetes with it, I have spent night worrying about the cost of DS's prescriptions when he's older. He takes 50+ treatments a day!! I know you can get pre paid certificates. It still, its expensive. There are adults o know who whoop for joy when they get CF related diabetes because it takes a huge financial burden off them.

When I cleared out my grandparents house after they died there were THREE black bin liners chock full of unused medicines that had been on repeat for things like athletes foot , constipation, really minor things. I absolutely blame the surgery for not reviewing just how much medication was on repeat prescription for them both. Clearly my very elderly grandparents just continued to pick them up along with other medicines for more serious conditions.

Titsalina why not just ask your pharmacy if you can just take a few to try rather than the whole amount? I would let you if you were my patient.

If a patient is on medication long term they should be having medication reviews with a senior community pharmacist. I'm sure there's a lack of pharmacists with the skills & time & funding to do this but surely this would help cut back some of the waste?

I've accumulated a bit of a stockpile myself recentley..alhough nothing like your photo...because the doc treated me then changed his mind about how to treat me. Had I cashed in the prescription another doctor gave me in between seeing my usual one as the problem hadn't cleared up I would have had even more of an unused stockpile! But I held off as I didn't beleive it would work (what he had given me) and thought it was an incorrect treatment (it would have been...or at least wouldn't have worked really) Sorted now at last...though chemist could give me only half the medication but at least I feel I could be on the right track! Mind you, wasted a lot of £8.40s prescription charges though...grrrrr!

If only we could take medicine back I would do...unused and sealed only ofcourse.

Titsalina, it IS ridiculous, I agree.
Also agree with your point about trial sizes of various things - the problem is that a trial of something would then require some kind of follow up to ascertain whether the trial was successful or not, and appointment many weeks or months for some specialist services are just not equipped for that.

When i talk about how underresourced many services are, it's NOT about individual HCPs' take home pay, it's about bodies on the ground to deliver time and training and people intensive services. Which is by definition expensive. There can be no scrimping if we want better services.

It get me very very upset when politicians talk to the public about 'patient centered' care, while at the same time cutting services and telling care providers that they are only to provide x, y and z but not a, b, or c as it's too expensive [angry
It understandably creates certain expectations that then need to be squashed.
I don't like being the bearer of bad news all of the time when it's not under my control.

If a patient is on medication long term they should be having medication reviews with a senior community pharmacist

I'm wondering how often this happens elsewhere because I have to have a medication review with boots AND my doctor.

Yes GPs and pharmacies need to monitor how many medications people are getting and what for.
I agree that paying is a burden on many people. I don't think those who are well off understand this at all.

I have a medication review with my GP. I have never had or been offered one by the pharmacy. I have never even heard of this happening.

Badders, your friend is going to rue the day she has an unnecessary bunionectomy . Tell her it hurts a lot, for a long time, and can cause serious nerve damage which may not get better.

Blood glucose test strips are an interesting case. Who are the people selling them on, on eBay ? Presumably they've had them prescribed. Wouldn't it be cost effective for the NHS to set up an eBay sting department, to catch a few of these fraudulent sellers and discourage the rest ?

I have never even heard of this happening.

I'm with Boots and they're really good. At the same time they offer smoking cessation, weight advice etc.

This is maybe where having pharmacists employed in GP practices specifically to review patient medications would be a big money saver in my view. Their specialist knowledge would mean they could also make sure everyone is getting the correct advice about anything they need to avoid (eg certain veg when taking warfarin and so on) that prescribed medicines aren't know to cross-react and that any follow-up blood tests to check effectiveness/ for side effects are done. It would really help the GPs.