Make The Most Of Your NHS – Reduce Medicine Waste

A campaign aimed at reducing unnecessary medicine waste launches on 3 October 2016 across East Riding of Yorkshire GPs and community pharmacies.

NHS East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has estimated that an incredible £1.5million is lost each year across the region through medicines waste alone.

The campaign, launched by the CCG, encourages patients to only order what they need, return unwanted medicines to their pharmacy for safe disposal and not to stock pile any medicines.

Alex Seal, Director of Commissioning and Transformation, NHS East Riding of Yorkshire CCG has said

“Like the majority of CCGs up and down the country, we are under increasing pressure to improve productivity and make efficiency savings.

“We have already made changes to the way we prescribe medicine, to reduce costs, and whilst we are starting to see the benefits from these, with the help of the public we still need to do more.

“Repeat prescriptions that are ordered and collected, but not used are one of our biggest problems. We are asking for patients on repeat prescriptions to think about what they are ordering and only ask for what they need and are running out of, any of the medicines can be dispensed when needed at a later date.

“Once medicines have been dispensed, they cannot be recycled, if your pharmacist does give somebody medicine they no longer require, they should give it back straight away, before leaving the chemist.

“Ideally, patients should book a regular medicine review with their local pharmacist or GP, to help manage their medicines in the best possible way for them.”

The £1.5 million that could potentially be saved each year in the East Riding of Yorkshire through better medicine management could instead be spent on an additional 17 district nurses, 71 drug treatment courses for breast cancer or a year’s support with a Dementia Advisor for 1,350 people diagnosed with early dementia.

As well as the financial costs, another reason to not stock pile medicine is for safety purposes. Taking out of date medicine that has lost its effectiveness can cause complications, it is also a safety risk for children, friends and family who might take them.