Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Don’t overstock on
NHS launches campaign in bid to stop wasted drugs
NHS Tayside has urged people to make sure they are taking the prescriptions they need after it emerged that £1.4 million worth of returned medicine is wasted.
And the figure, according to a leading pharmacist, could be a lot higher if it included stockpiled items or thrown-out prescriptions.
A campaign, called Let’s Talk Medicines, has been launched in a bid to encourage people on repeat prescriptions to look at medicines they take and speak to their pharmacist or GP about any concerns.
They’re also being urged to only order the medication they need.
The over-ordering of prescriptions is particularly prevalent around Christmas time, as people worry about pharmacies being closed.
However, David Coulson, associate director of pharmacy for NHS Tayside, said pharmacies were only closed for two days at Christmas and two at New Year and “stocking up” was unnecessary.
He said: “People seem to panic at this time of the year but it’s unnecessary and really does drive waste and cost. We see a huge spike in the number of prescriptions every December which we want to get rid of. A lot of people forget that i n Scotland, although prescriptions cost the public nothing, medication does cost NHS Tayside a lot of money.
“Audit Scotland has put a figure of £1.4m on the amount of waste with returned medication every year in Tayside — but that’s only returned medication.
“I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess, but for every person you have who has returned a prescription they don’t need, there could easily be 10 times that number who have either kept an unused prescription in a cupboard or flushed it down the toilet.