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.

Thank you PacificDogwood I didn't know this was a well known issue. Sorry we cross posted. .... But... I think we all vaguely knew unused stockpiled medication is a huge waste to NHS but OP's original post makes it so real by a specific example.... that I wondered if it was worth a fresh effort with a different tactic.

Sometimes issues come round in circles and you just need that one time that it really captures public imagination ala Zeitgeist!

I signed up to the "paperless" px service....this means that if the dr px something it goes straight to the pharmacy and the dr doesn't give you a script.
So off I trot happy that it's all going to be quicker and easier....
To be met with blind panic and to be told they need to print out the px to dispense it....HOW is this quicker!?
Am I missing something?

That's pretty rubbish then! Here in Finland we've had e-prescriptions for ages and they work fine - you give your identity number at the pharmacy (NI number could work for UK maybe? or everyone have a NHS number) or ID to the pharmacist and they find your prescription on the computer, no need to print anything off. And you can renew your prescriptions online from home so no need to go to the doctor each time you need a medicine for a chronic condition (although I can see how that could make the stockpiling issue worse if there isn't a big enough cost but its a godsend for people who need medicines renewed a lot)

My CCG has a local policy of one months supply of medication only, no branded drugs if there is a generic available and no over the counter drugs on prescription.
They have stopped paracetamol, antihistamines and head lice treatments.
This is called a prescribing for clinical need policy and most areas are introducing them to try and reduce the drug cost to the NHS.
GPs have to justify breaking this policy to the medicine management team.

What annoys me is that crutches can't be reused.
I'm sure that lots of homes have a set of no longer used crutches.
What a waste.
I'm in Ireland so perhaps they can be brought back in the UK ?

Crutches can't be reused? Now that's the most ridiculous thing in this thread!

Sorry hijacking thread but was wondering how long do inhalers last? I slightly over ordered for my some last year, have nearly finished the brown ones but because they're working so well haven't used the blue ones as much.

Crutches can be brought back, my mum is using them at the moment after a hip operation and she can take them back to physiotherapy when she's finished with them along with the 2 Zimmer frames she was also given

The inhaler should have an expiry date on it and would be OK to use until the end of the month of that date. So something with a date of 10/2016 would expire at the end of October 2016

My gp practice constantly makes mistakes with my prescriptions.

I order 1 repeat prescription, they randomly decide not to do that one but to resurrect 3 other ones that I have used over the last year or two ago.

If I went on what the GP practise decided to give me, I'd be dead several times over... You'd think a fully trained doctor would notice that they had given a patient high doses of morphine, fentanyl and oxycodone, and think about what that might do. And perhaps compare to my most recent prescriptions to see that I'm not taking these so it's not that I've developed an insanely high tolerance for all 3 opiates which should spark alarm bells as it is!

I do wonder what happens if patients are too poorly to advocate for themselves. There is such a high level of trust in health care professionals.

I've had to stop doing prescriptions that automatically get sent to the pharmacist, as these mistakes then don't get picked up on until someone puts the medicines in my hands. Alternatively the pharmacist stops the whole order as its so clearly wrong and will kill me if I took 'as directed'. Which at least shows pharmacists can see lethal errors, thank goodness. But then, I have to start begging the GP receptionist for prescriptions when I'm running out of medicines, that I cannot suddenly stop... I cannot order anything earlier as they refuse to do repeat prescriptions until there's only a few days left.

The links between patient, GP and pharmacist appear to be creaky at best.

And yes, I have a lot of drugs left over, but not because of me.

I think the issue of exemptions for prescription charges needs to be reviewed. When I was diagnosed with hypothyroisim a few years ago I was suprised that I was entitled to Levothyroxine free of charge irrespective of my income. I was even more suprised when I discovered a couple of years later, having been prescribed antibiotics, that I was entitled to free medication for all conditions. Having learnt from this thread that cystic fibrosis patients are not automatically exempt I now feel even more guilty about my free prescriptions.

On a positive note my GP surgery had just reduced repeat prescriptions from 2 to 1 months dosage so this may control some wastage.

I think every medication that goes out should have the price printed on them, in large numbers, in red, VERY visible.

^ ^ this!

I'm asthmatic and wish we had exemptions. I buy a three monthly card and have to work it sometimes so I'm without for a couple of weeks ( of the card, not the meds!). It's shameful how wasteful some people are.
I know one older man who gets repeat prescription for paracetamol .. It's 16p a box! He's relational is that he's paid all his life into the NHS and it's his dues. My pharmacist recently told me that it's only recently that all cancer meds have become free on the NHS. Awful.

Just such a pity the meds can't be reused ( send me free inhalers any day! ).

I take 6 medications and one problem is that each precription comes with a different supply. Some are only 28 days, others are 2 months supply, one med can't be dispensed for the prescribed amount because the packs can't be split.

It is difficult to keep up with how much of each med I have left and what I need to order. I end up with mini-stockpiles (3 boxes) which I then run down before reordering. I'm sure that is behind some of this stockpiling problem.

Another one here who's been prescribed fairly large amounts of medication that turns out to be unsuitable (various stuff for endo/period pain). I'm wondering what the alternative would be - if one gets a small amount of medication to try, and it helps, they have to go back to the GP for a larger prescription. Which is more costly? Is there another way of doing it?

Someone told me the exemptions have not been reviewed for decades. I suspect this is deliberate, because the overwhelming likelihood is that many more conditions would have to be exempted at enormous cost.

It's a huge problem. A lot of pensioners have mental health issues and a stockpiling instinct instilled in them during the war. And they don't pay for their scripts, so it's very very common for them to hoard. Not sure what the solution is tbh. Remember people who take more than two prescriptions a month generally pay an annual/quarterly fee and then don't pay per item, so putting up the prescription charge is unlikely to curtail the majority of hoarders

This is what is so sad when we constantly hear about the NHS's financial woes. There is so much money wasted by patients. It's totally shameful.

Some kind of tamper-proof packaging or seal so medication can be reused, even if it's just a few of the blister packs from a box; but especially if the box hasn't even been opened.
Maybe something that would change colour or something if integrity of packet/blister pack was interfered with (even just a needle prick).

Don't know how though, but surely completely unopened boxes/bottles can be reused more easily.

Putting up the prescription charges is clearly not the answer.

Miscellaneous, what you are describing is one of the huge issues related to managed repeats and yes, communication between pharmacies/GP surgeries/patients needs to be improved.
It is quite surprising however, how often people are annoyed when I ask to speak to them to clarify something about a prescription.... safe prescribing and convenience for all at all times may at times be mutually exclusive.

When I was in hospital recently I gave a copy of my repeat prescription to the doctor, I didn't get all my medication even when I brought some of them from home. I got to take home the medication I brought in and a half used insulin pen to save wasting the insulin. This was better than the previous system where any medication taken in by the patient was destroyed and a new prescription issued.

Surely there are ways to make the medicine safe again? My pharmacy/GP screw up all the time and give me repeats I don't need. Or I end up tapering off something I've had on repeat and am left with all the wrong strength tablets at the end. I always assumed that unopened bottles or blister packs could be used again, or other stuff could be treated somehow to make it pure again...

Natsku and MadameGinger
I am in Ireland and they can't be reused!!!
Health and Safety don't ya know!!!
And our Health Service is falling apart.
No NHS.
Over 1 million people have medical cards - they get free gp visits and a cut in the price of medicines.
The rest of us struggle along,many pay for private healthcare ( hospital) as the waiting lists are .....................
and a gp visit is €60. The price of prescription medicine is off the scale compared with many other countries.
But we can waste crutches!!!!

Is it mainly older people that tend to stockpile medicine?If that is true, then there needs to be some way of checking whether elderly people are actually using their medication.

My local pharmacist/s are great, as they are the only ones who seem to take prescribing seriously, and care whether I get the right drugs or whether I overdose.

I appreciate it when someone cares about my wellbeing. I don't mind checking and involvement. I do mind lackadaisical disinterest about correcting mistakes and a complete disengagement and 'computer says noooo' attitude to managing my drug regimen.

I can't count the number of times I've been told by receptionists that I need to go to A&E to get medicines if I 'wont' wait until a weeks time when they can get round to correcting mistakes that the GP surgery has made.

Firstly, I'm bedbound 20- 24hrs a day. So the trip to the surgery is a massive massive deal and will take me days to recover from. Let alone going to A&E to wait all night in agony to waste their time by collapsing from the physical exertion of being there ... To ask if they'll just prescribe some opiates as my GP made a clerical error (again).

Who thinks A&E prescribes opiates in large doses to people that pitch in off the street?

Not to mention how they'd laugh if I then asked for blood pressure & heart rate tablets, anti-nausea tablets, and a whole host of other meds I need to manage my condition.

I'd be labeled an opiates addict. And laughed out of A&E. And I think it's absolutely disgusting that GP practice can flippantly threaten me with this... Because their repeat prescription system doesn't work.

Sorry, I didn't realize how upset I was until I started to write this post! Ive also realized I don't store enough of the drugs I need to take.

Mind sweeper DH has never had a review with a pharmacist, his GP has made him have an appointment for them and it's pointless. His medication is needed for life and the level is set by his consultant.