The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7236 p218
15 February 2003

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Eastbourne PCT launches campaign to reduce repeat prescribing waste

"Order only what you need once a month" is the message for a repeat prescribing campaign launched last week by Eastbourne Downs Primary Care Trust.

Jackie Lamberty, the trust's head of prescribing and pharmacy services, said that around £1.3m worth of medicines were returned to community pharmacies in East Sussex for destruction every year.

"How much more is sitting in people's medicines cabinets?" she added. "It is a shame to see money wasted which could fund other services locally. For example, that money could provide an additional 500 cataract operations or 75 hip replacements each year."

Ms Lamberty said that in one return to a Seaford pharmacy £8,000 worth of inhalers were taken back in a plastic bag — all unused.

The trust has produced a leaflet explaining repeat prescribing and the problem of wasted medicines. It points out how patients can help and contains a small section on the safe use of medicines. The trust is hoping that a leaflet will be attached to every repeat prescription issued from GP surgeries over the next few weeks.

The leaflet will also be attached to bags when medicines are collected from pharmacies and is on display in libraries and post offices. In subsequent weeks, small stickers displaying the campaign's message will be stuck on to repeat prescription forms. A press campaign in local newspapers is also under way.

Prescribing support pharmacist Alison Evans told The Journal that the prescribing team is also going into surgeries to review repeat prescribing and raise awareness of housekeeping issues, such as encouraging the removal of discontinued items from repeat forms.

Ms Evans added that, although repeat prescribing issues were widespread, they were a particular problem for trusts such as Eastbourne that are responsible for large numbers of elderly patients.