The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7303 p740
12 June 2004

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· Council election
· Paracetamol
· Repeat dispensing
· Free movement in Europe
· The industry

Letters to the Editor

Repeat dispensing

Just common sense

From Ms S. Graham, MRPharmS, and others

We would like to add a few points to your editorial (PJ, 8 May, p558) and news feature (ibid, p567) from our perspective as practitioners with two years’ experience of a repeat dispensing scheme. We started a local scheme with health action zone funding in summer 2002, and became a pathfinder site in 2003. There are now over 500 patients participating at the three local pharmacies, which dispense approximately 1,500 repeat dispensing prescription items a month from the GP surgery which has a list size of about 11,000.

It is clear, as your cover headline indicates, that this is not a panacea, and it would be surprising indeed if a miraculous cure for all the problems of NHS community pharmacy were ever to be invented. However, the positive points of repeat dispensing are:

· It is a simple scheme, needing little in the way of additional training, resources or information. We have demonstrated that it can be implemented by team working within and between local pharmacies and GPs.
· There is a decrease in GP workload in processing routine prescription requests and an increase in convenience to the patient.
· The increased role of the pharmacist in managing supplies is perceived by most patients to be, in the words of one, “just common sense”. Within the dispensary there is scope for improved work flow and stock management because demands are known well in advance.
· There are clinical benefits in the end of the repeat period acting as a trigger for GP review.

We hope that the NHS will soon be able to solve the GP computer software problems, and that there will be more positive support from primary care organisations for local GPs and pharmacists wishing to implement the scheme. An audit of the scheme has been put out to tender by the Department of Health (PJ, 28 February, pA24) and we also hope that this work will be quickly carried out and published.

With respect to the future expansion of the scheme we would like to see the formal inclusion of, and funding for, a “brown bag” medicine review by the pharmacist for all patients upon entry to the scheme. This aids compliance, reduces waste and helps towards bringing all items “in step”. There is also scope for “as required” medication to be managed by the pharmacist within a limit set by the original repeat dispensing prescription.

Susan Graham
Peter Hopley
Helen Williams
Community Pharmacists

Anthony Kay
GP
Newcastle upon Tyne

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