We regularly receive 15-20 requests per day where our patients are running out of their medication, the majority of which are non-urgent medications (see below). As a result our GPs are spending the equivalent of 10 appointments per day reviewing and authorising medication whilst our Receptionists spend valuable time keeping a watching brief on where the prescription is to enable the patient to collect on the same day.
With a little bit of forward planning these prescriptions could be ordered in advance and be dropped efficiently into the prescription process making more time available for GPs to see patients.
As a result same day urgent prescription requests will be strictly limited to the following medications, and patients will not be able to access an urgent prescription more than once. You can of course ask your Pharmacist for an urgent prescription which they can dispense without a prescription being signed by your GP.
- Asthma and COPD reliever inhalers
- Anticoagulation
- Insulin, and associated products and other antidiabetic medications
- Antiepileptics
- GTN spray
- Long terms steroids and Immune suppressants
- Antipsychotics
- Anti-arrhythmics
- Palliative care patient’s medications
- Long term antibiotics
- EpiPen
- Infant formula
Requests for urgent medications should be made before 12:00pm and will not be available for collection until 6:00pm. If you require your usual medication as an emergency and it is not possible to get a doctor’s prescription in time, it may be possible to obtain a supply from the chemist.