Prescriptions

Prescriptions

Some medications which are intended for long term use may be authorised as a repeat prescription for you by your doctor. This means that you will be able to get a prescription for these items without having to see the doctor every time you need them.

Non-urgent advice: Ordering Repeat Prescription

Repeat prescriptions can be requested by:

• Using the repeat prescribing slip on the right hand side of your last prescription, mark the items required. The slip can be put into the red repeat prescription request box in the reception area, handed in at reception, sent in the post , or put through the letter box of the surgery if the building is closed. If you have lost the repeat prescribing slip, a written list of required items can be sent instead.

Most medications require a GP to review them from time to time; many medications require monitoring such as blood tests and blood pressure checks to ensure they are being safely prescribed. Your repeat prescription will have a ‘review date’ listed on the right hand side reminding you when to book for this.

Online prescription ordering is available for patients who have registered to online services. To use the online prescription and appointment system you will need a password. If you are interested in booking appointments and ordering repeat medication online, please contact reception so that our practice management team can set up your own secure access.

Other online access ports are available eg Registering on the My GP app allows appointment booking and requesting prescriptions from your phone.

• Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)  EPS enables GPs to send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser (such as a pharmacy) of the patient’s choice. This makes the prescribing and dispensing process more efficient and convenient for patients and staff.  Please see your preferred Pharmacy to discuss and sign up. Controlled drugs can not currently be sent via EPS and so paper issues would need to be collected from the surgery for any medication on the Controlled Drug list (see below for details).

• Patients should be aware that some pharmacies can now order repeat medication on their patient’s behalf, arrange for it to be collected from the practice and delivered it to them if needed. To arrange this please contact your own pharmacist directly.

• Some patients who are on regular stable medication can be issued prescriptions by repeat dispensing. This is where several months’ worth of prescriptions are issued in advance and held by your pharmacy. This can only be done where monitoring tests are up to date, the long term dose is stable and the medications themselves are safe to prescribe in this way. It is not possible to prescribe controlled medications via repeat dispensing.

Where prescription request reach the surgery before 6pm, the prescription will be ready to collect after 3pm 2 working days later.

Other Information

It should be noted that only medications which have been authorised by your doctor for repeat prescription can be issued in this way. You cannot order repeat medication before its issue is due, but in some circumstances such as prior to holidays early prescriptions can be issued if you contact our reception team.

You will be asked to see the doctor for a medication review periodically to re-authorise and monitor your repeat prescription as appropriate. The review date for your prescription is printed on the right hand side of your prescription.

Controlled medications have a legal status that demands more stringent rules are applied. 

Controlled medications can only be only issued by a doctor. If they are on a repeat prescription the receptionist will put your request request through to a GP – reception staff are not allowed to issue these medications.

Controlled drug prescriptions currently can not be sent electronically to pharmacies and so the paper prescription would need to be collected from the surgery. They also can not currently be added to repeat dispensing batch prescriptions.

Our GPs have a duty to follow strict guidelines on prescribing controlled substances and will view each request carefully. The dosage instructions on controlled medications must be followed properly and early repeat medications will not generally be issued except in special circumstances such as holidays. In these circumstances  you must let our reception team know so that the GP can be informed of the reason for early issue , otherwise it is likely the request will be declined. If an early issue is made , it will be expected that the following prescription ‘due date’ will account for the left over medications from the previous issue.

If prescriptions are repeatedly being requested early this suggests over use of the medication. In these circumstances our GPs will reduce supplies to a weekly issue or may even consider stopping the medication.

If controlled prescriptions are lost we always check see if they have been dispensed by any pharmacy and it is not usual to provide replacements for lost prescriptions or medication.

The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 divide Controlled Drugs (CDs) into five schedules corresponding to their therapeutic usefulness and misuse potential:

Schedule 1 (Controlled Drug licence) 

Have no recognised medicinal use

Schedule 2 (Controlled Drugs)

Includes diamorphine (heroin), morphine, remifentanil, pethidine, secobarbital, glutethimide, amfetamine, and cocaine.

Are subject to safe custody requirements and so must be stored in a locked receptacle, usually in an appropriate CD cabinet or approved safe, which can only be opened by the person in lawful possession of the CD or a person authorised by that person.

A licence is required to import or export drugs in Schedule 2.

Schedule 3 (Controlled Drugs – no register)

Includes a small number of minor stimulant drugs and other drugs.

Examples are the barbiturates (except secobarbital, now Schedule 2), buprenorphine, diethylpropion, mazindol, meprobamate, midazolam, pentazocine, phentermine, and temazepam and tramadol.

Schedule 4

Part 1: benzodiazepines (except temazepam and midazolam, which are in Schedule 3) and zolpidem, which are subject to minimal control:

Includes most of the benzodiazepines, plus eight other substances including fencamfamin and mesocarb.

Possession is an offence without an appropriate prescription. Possession by practitioners and pharmacists acting in their professional capacities is authorised.

Part 2: includes androgenic and anabolic steroids, clenbuterol, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), non-human chorionic gonadotrophin, somatotropin, somatrem, and somatropin:Includes most of the anabolic and androgenic steroids such as testosterone, together with clenbuterol (adrenoreceptor stimulant) and growth hormones.There is no restriction on the possession when it is part of a medicinal product.

Non-urgent advice: Prescriptions by Telephone

• For patients who are housebound, do not have repeat dispensing, cannot order prescriptions online, and are not able to use their pharmacy to order their regular medication prescriptions ,we can make special arrangements for telephone prescription ordering. Please contact the reception staff if you need to be registered for this.

Telephone ordering prescriptions is discouraged, it ties up the phone lines and errors in ordering prescriptions are much more frequent via the telephone due to communication difficulties over medication names. If you need to order items over the telephone, be sure to list the items required clearly using the name listed on your repeat prescription slip. As we deal with several hundred medication requests on repeat prescription every day, routine telephone ordering of prescriptions unacceptably ties up the telephone lines.