Pharmacy Based Repeat Dispensing Can Help People With Long Term Conditions Access Medicines: NPA Statement, UK

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 18 Mar 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Reacting to the statement from the British Thyroid Foundation John Turk, NPA Chief Executive said:

"The safe and timely supply of medicines is the fundamental role of community pharmacy. In England and Wales people with long term conditions who are taking medication that is likely to remain the same for up to 12 months can receive medicines from the pharmacy in instalments, rather than having to go back to the GP each time they need a new prescription. This NHS service would be ideal for patients on single, stable therapy, for example, Levothyroxine."

And added:

"The repeat dispensing process removes the need to return to the surgery each month saving both the GP and patient time. The patient in partnership with the GP agree when the The regular interaction allows pharmacists to identify medicines and health related issues early and intervene appropriately. The patient can also benefit from advice on any over the counter medicines or supplements they may be taking - sometimes these can interact with prescription medicines."

Notes

Repeat dispensing is an NHS service offered by many community pharmacies in England and Wales.

Whether a prescription is suitable to be dispensed under the repeat dispensing arrangements is a matter for the prescriber's clinical judgement and mutual agreement between the prescriber, the patient and, ideally, the pharmacist.

The expectation is that the arrangements will be best suited to patients with long term conditions which are considered likely to remain stable for the duration of the repeatable prescription.

The patient receives a repeatable prescription, which gives details of how many instalments the prescription contains. This is accompanied by the correct number of 'batch issues', one for each time the medicine is to be dispensed. Both the repeatable prescription and the batch issues are required for medicines to be dispensed.

When dispensing an instalment of medicine, the pharmacist may ask the patient questions about their medication. This is to ensure that the patient is still taking their medicine and that they are not having any problems. If there are any problems the pharmacist will refer the patient back to the prescriber.

The patient must therefore use the same pharmacy for every batch of medicine. If the patient wishes to use a different pharmacy, they must return to their GP for another prescription.

Source
National Pharmacy Association