[Misc] Repeat prescriptions

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I use the NHS app for repeat prescriptions and they are sent direct to Asda pharmacy. It works very well. The surgery put in the first date a new prescription will be available on their computer. This tallies with the date on the paper prescription that comes with the medication. If they are not due they don’t show on the NHS app for “repeat prescriptions” until the relevant date. Works very well for me as they are generally available at Asda the day after I request them online.

If I am due a review the surgery phone me and we book a date there and then. They do not leave it up to me.

Sounds like you are having an absolute ’mare Harry

How quaint! My surgery nags me by text. If I ignore requests to book my annual asthma review too often then they simply suspend my prescription until I book the damn thing. Works a treat

 

[Happy Exile]

Another vote for the NHS app. I got a hospital referral recently entirely over the app and answering questions a doctor asked me via email. Nothing urgent, but nonetheless odd not to have spoken to anyone much less seen anyone. The referral then came via SMS and I thought it was a scam at first so checked the app to see it was in fact genuine. But it made me ask a similar question to you, how would people who are vulnerable, or not up to speed with technology etc cope?

 

[Coldeanseagull]

The NHS app is great. I had blood tests yesterday at 9:32 and the results came back at 12:41. Shame the results weren't as good as the app.

So many of my partner's clients (psychiatry) had this problem with their prescriptions that she prepared an instruction sheet about the NHS app for new ones.

Needs to be put on here for the hard of thought I mean translated into layman terms

 

[chaileyjem]

agree re: NHS app. Great for prescriptions, test results, booking non urgent appointments.
Also until recently i was unaware of paying for prescriptions monthly using the pre payment certificate to ensure you pay about £12 max.
Very useful if you have multiple prescriptions

Save money with a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC)

Find out about prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs), including what they are and how they can help you save money.

www.nhs.uk

 

[Cotton Socks]

I just get all my meds on an electronic repeat prescription. I don't even have to request it (which is handy as I used to forget a lot and then ask the chemist for a 'loan'), I just go to the chemist when I realise I'm down to 2 tablets & it's there waiting. I do have to have to have a med review every year otherwise the eRP stops, helpfully I wasn't told this & spent ages looking for an non existent bag of meds.
When you get to speak to the Dr or whoever, just ask if they can give you a quick med review on all of them & get it set up so the meds are all prescribed at the same time, for the same amount of time, ie. a year.
I do think my surgery is one of the more simple ones. I sent them an email the other day & they replied!!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

agree re: NHS app. Great for prescriptions, test results, booking non urgent appointments.
Also until recently i was unaware of paying for prescriptions monthly using the pre payment certificate to ensure you pay about £12 max.
Very useful if you have multiple prescriptions

Save money with a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC)

Find out about prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs), including what they are and how they can help you save money.

www.nhs.uk

My other half does this. It’s £11.45 a month for 10 months.

 

[Zeberdi]

I have only given half the story here.
Is it this complicated all round the country?

Yes in buckets.

But it can be easier!

I’m on 13 different prescriptions believe it or not and up until 2 years ago it was a nightmare - I frequently got prescribed wrong medication, had missing meds in my deliveries, had 5 separate deliveries a month instead of all together monthly because they were all out of sync and meds falling out of my cupboards because they kept over prescribing on some.

Finally after monthly phone calls for 2 years, 2 face to faces with the Prescriptions Team to sort it all out, (the 3rd party that manages prescriptions and sends requests to pharmacy), I finally had enough.

I went to the surgery to complain that my meds were constantly wrong and asked them why they seemed incapable of getting it correct after me trying for several years to get it sorted and them saying each time they would. Was sent a letter the next day removing me from the Practice list on the grounds that ‘there was an unreconcilable breakdown in relationship and they didn’t feel I believed the practice could look after my care‘. I was royally pissed off because I was in the middle of cancer treatment and various other things and had absolutely no issues with my GP or receptionists - it was the pharmacy team that were the issue..

Enrolled with another surgery and found another brilliant GP. The Practice uses the NHS App so no more phoning monthly for meds, wrong prescriptions nor failed deliveries. The GP/new Prescription team reviewed all my meds - and synched every one of them.

Sometimes though it can take up to a week to get meds so I have to order them in plenty of time. It is so easy though.

The only med now that isn’t on repeat is one I that have to have monthly Liver and Kidney tests a week before it’s prescribed for the next month so getting blood results and ordering meds a few days after that in time for my monthly prescription can be a bit stressful. But they do deliver it at short notice if necessary.

I would ask about a telephone call with the Prescription team at your surgery H to get some help and also see if they use the NHS App that you can order your meds on.

Just as a heads up:

Phoning 111 if you run out of meds because your prescription is late - a 111 doctor can send a prescription straight to a chemist which you can pick up same day/immediately. It will only be an emergency supply for 2-3 days but enough to tied you over until you get your regular prescription.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I use the Patient app which is lined to the NHS app (or may even be part of it).

It did take a while to get all the repeats on the same order so I can pick everything up at once, but if you moan sufficiently at the chemist and the surgery thry should be able to get everything in synch.

Works like a charm unless and until the interweb goes down, in which case it's back to old fashioned paper and the NHS fax (ffs) machine.

 

[The Clamp]

The pharmacy app is pretty good.

Once you’re set up, it reminds you when to approve the next order.

It can even remind you went to take tablets if you need.

Combined with the pre-paid certificate, it’s a pretty efficient way to pay for and order meds.

Can also organise to have them delivered to your home on the app too.

 

[The Clamp]

agree re: NHS app. Great for prescriptions, test results, booking non urgent appointments.
Also until recently i was unaware of paying for prescriptions monthly using the pre payment certificate to ensure you pay about £12 max.
Very useful if you have multiple prescriptions

Save money with a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC)

Find out about prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs), including what they are and how they can help you save money.

www.nhs.uk

Saves me about £40 a month.

The NHS don’t seem to promote or advertise this facility. I found out about it in a newspaper article.

 

[The Clamp]

As an aside, when I was prescribed my meds, I didn’t start taking them for three months but I still collected them.

I now have three months supply at home incase of shortages or any other unforeseen circumstances.

Obviously only do this if it’s not urgent you start your meds straight away.

 

[dstanman]

Find the NHS App great for repeat prescriptions. I order when needed and they are normally ready within 2 - 3 days. No longer have surplus tablet which used to happen when the pharmacy kept reordering if you needed them or not. So must save the NHS shed load of money. Always get a text from the pharmacy to say request received and being processed and then another one to say ready for collection.

Would like to see the NHS App mange all medical requirement. Why have the NHS app, patients knows best and the surgery site, plus others, just have the one for everything.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

For me, with a repeat asthma inhaler prescription, it couldn't be more straightforward. These steps may help you H.

1. Load the NHS app to your phone
2. Set up username and password (it might ask for your DOB and NHS number if you know it)

3. Login to NHS app - it should have your repeat prescriptions pre-loaded
4. Set up your prefered pharmacy for repeat prescriptions to be collected from (only need to do this once tho you can change it subsequently)

5. If you want to order a repeat prescription, select it/them from a ticklist if you have more than one prescription
6. Wait a day or two til status of request goes from Requested to Approved
7. Wait another day or two until your preferred pharmacy has had time to action your prescription
8. Pick up repeat prescription medication from your preferred pharmacy (there may even be an option for them to deliver it to your home address)

Hope that helps. Cheers

I go one further and use Pharmacy2U, an online supplier who deliver via Royal Mail 48 hour.

No more time wasted hanging pharmacies forced to listen to in depth life stories greater than those seen at an Albion fans forum

 

[Nitram]

Find the NHS App great for repeat prescriptions. I order when needed and they are normally ready within 2 - 3 days. No longer have surplus tablet which used to happen when the pharmacy kept reordering if you needed them or not. So must save the NHS shed load of money. Always get a text from the pharmacy to say request received and being processed and then another one to say ready for collection.

Would like to see the NHS App mange all medical requirement. Why have the NHS app, patients knows best and the surgery site, plus others, just have the one for everything.

My NHS App does have it all under one umbrella, the Patients Knows Best is a pathway within the App.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Yes, the NHS online pages and Patient Access are my goto. I order repeats from there and when I turn up at the chemist they are there a couple of days later. The chemist is nominated by you in the app/Patient Access site.

I'm a walking chemist at the moment. Statins, blood pressure meds and now one for a thyroid that has gone on strike.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. The doctor put me on a thyroid med and told me that I no longer have to pay for prescriptions for ANYTHING because I am on this tablet. I'm confused as to how this happens. He was even more confused when I told him that I wanted to pay and not get them free. This is because I have the £11 a month direct debit running that covers any prescriptions. If folk who need regular prescriptions aren't on this I would really encourage them to sign up. I save so much money I felt like a cheating thief by going to free prescriptions thus I declined.

I hope all this is sorted for you. But as you are a very competent chap doing it all online from your own PC will be a breeze. When I was once stuck and in urgent need in Suffolk I manged to change the chemist and get a repeat sent there. So much easier.

If it’s Levothyroxine then you should be entitled to free prescriptions for life.

The amount that I’ve put into the system each year doesn’t trouble me in the slightest that I get my prescriptions for free. I’d rather not need them but it is what it is.

 

[GT49er]

I use the NHS app for repeat prescriptions and they are sent direct to Asda pharmacy. It works very well. The surgery put in the first date a new prescription will be available on their computer. This tallies with the date on the paper prescription that comes with the medication. If they are not due they don’t show on the NHS app for “repeat prescriptions” until the relevant date. Works very well for me as they are generally available at Asda the day after I request them online.

If I am due a review the surgery phone me and we book a date there and then. They do not leave it up to me.

Sounds like you are having an absolute ’mare Harry

Edit - I seem to have an NHS app and a Patient Knows Best app. Get notifications from both if anything has been updated

I have been on repeat dispensing for over 20 years (I also have a couple more items on repeat prescription too). The surgery would hand me a pack of six prescriptions, I'd hand them in at the chemist's and go and collect one every month. They ask me to go for a review, usually about once a year; then I just pop into the surgery and make an appointment - easy as pie! (strangely, it takes 4 to 6 weeks to get an appointment if it's something I want to talk to them about!)

Then the surgery insisted on going electronic - and it took years to get it sorted! Te amount of time I wasted trotting between ASDA pharmacy and the surgery - one lot arguing they had sent it, and the other lot insisting they hadn't got it! (In the process of this, incidentally, I found out the difference between repeat prescriptions and repeat dispensing - and ASDA at least would have them in different places, so when I asked for my repeat prescriptions they'd look at prescriptions received from the surgery - and not find it......because the batches (the repeat dispensing) of six were stored in a different place!) Not that this was the only glitch, mind.

I begged the surgery to go back to the paper prescriptions, which had worked perfectly for years - even offered to pay for the printing! - but they were adamant; electronic or nothing. Ironically, as soon as the surgery received the batch of prescriptions, they printed them off (and still do!) and filed them!

 

[Surf's Up]

I had the same problem (ie different scripts initially issued at different times/dates and therefore scheduled for renewing at different times meaning that I had to request repeats for separate drugs separately, several times in a 3 monthly cycle). Luckily my GP practice has got a resident Pharmacist and he was able to reschedule the timing of my drugs so that they now all run out and are repeat prescribed at the same time.

 

[Surf's Up]

I had the same problem (ie different scripts initially issued at different times/dates and therefore scheduled for renewing at different times meaning that I had to request repeats for separate drugs separately, several times in a 3 monthly cycle). Luckily my GP practice has got a resident Pharmacist and he was able to reschedule the timing of my drugs so that they now all run out and are repeat prescribed at the same time.

ps and I use the NHS Ap to re-order my drugs - it works brilliantly.

 

[Eeyore]

If it’s Levothyroxine then you should be entitled to free prescriptions for life.

The amount that I’ve put into the system each year doesn’t trouble me in the slightest that I get my prescriptions for free. I’d rather not need them but it is what it is.

Yeah, it is Levothyroxine. I don't know why that suddenly means free prescriptions for life though.

I only pay £11 a month and that covers everything. If I still had to pay individually that would have been different

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I go one further and use Pharmacy2U, an online supplier who deliver via Royal Mail 48 hour.

No more time wasted hanging pharmacies forced to listen to in depth life stories greater than those seen at an Albion fans forum

The problem is that if too many people use them, you can lose your local pharmacy. My pharmacy is right opposite the surgery, so handy if the doctor has prescribed something new, but also has a little room where you can drop in to ask for advice, which is invaluable if you don’t need to see a doctor.