Prescriptions

Repeat Prescriptions

You may deliver your repeat medication request:

Non-urgent advice: Notice

We cannot accept telephone requests due to the risk of errors. This service is only for medications that your doctor has agreed to prescribe on repeat. You may be sent a message at intervals to book a telephone review or a nurse appointment for bloods and other tests. Please book when you are asked. These reviews are important because we need to check you are taking a safe and effective dose.

Dispensing Patients

We dispense and deliver to all our patients who live in rural areas, and who live more than one mile from the nearest Chemist.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to dispense to patients who live in Abingdon.

Our dispensary aims to process prescriptions within 2 working days, excluding weekends and Bank Holidays. If you have any problems please telephone the surgery.

We ask patients who use our dispensary services to complete a repeat medication questionnaire for us once a year. This helps us to identify any areas of concern or issues you are experiencing. If you have not completed one in the last 12 months, please do this now.

Complete Dispensing Review of Repeat Medications

Nominating a pharmacy

You can choose which pharmacy you would like to use for your medication. You can either ask us to do this, or you can do this yourself using the NHS App. To help you choose the most convenient, please refer to our list of pharmacies in and near Abingdon or you can choose an internet pharmacy. Please note that we do not control the time it takes them to process your prescription.

Prescribing policy

The practice has a prescribing policy.  All prescriptions are issued for a maximum of 28 days and repeat medications should be ordered monthly.

The Department of Health advise that a 28 day prescribing interval is recognised by the NHS as making the best possible balance between patient convenience, good medical practice and minimal drug wastage.

Prescription charges

Most adults in England have to pay prescription charges. Some items are always free, including contraceptives and medicines prescribed for hospital inpatients. The current prescription charge is £9.90 per item.

Prescriptions are free for everyone aged 60 years+ and patients with specific health conditions or disabilities. Patients on low incomes can also get help with the cost. Please see the information below to check whether you are able to get prescriptions for free, NHS help with payment or reduce the cost of prescriptions by getting a prepayment certificate (a PPC).

The NHS website sets out who can get free prescriptions or help with health costs. Please take a look to see whether any of these conditions apply to you. Click here

If you need 3 or more prescription items in 3 months or 11 items in 12 months, you can save money by prepaying for them. You can buy a 3-month prepayment certificate at £32.05 or a 12-month certificate at £114.50. Click here for more information.

The HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificate is only for hormone replacement therapy medicines licensed to treat menopause symptoms, but you can use it regardless of why these medicines are prescribed for you. The current cost is £19.80 for 12 months so you will save money if you’re going to buy more than 2 eligible prescription items in 12 months. Click here for more information.

Reducing wasted medications

Medicines going to waste is a major problem, contributing to medicine shortages, costing the health service a huge amount each year, and having a large carbon footprint. You can help tackle this through careful and responsible management of your prescriptions:

  • Only order what you need. Check what medicines you have at home before you order your repeat prescriptions. If you have enough, only request the medicines you need this time. You will still be able to order others again in future
  • Check your prescription bag before leaving the pharmacy/practice to make sure that you only have what you need and that there’s nothing extra in there. If you return an item before you leave the pharmacy/practice, the medicines can be reused.
  • Let your pharmacy or practice team know if you’ve stopped taking any of your medicines or if they’re no longer right for you.
  • Dispose of medicines correctly. Any unused or out of date medicines should be returned to your pharmacy for safe disposal. This is important for all medicines, and particularly for inhalers, as incorrectly disposing of them leads to greenhouse gases leaking out into the atmosphere.

See the following video for more information on reducing wasted medicines: