Prescriptions

Repeat Prescriptions

Repeat prescriptions must be requested by means of returning the tear off slip attached to your earlier prescription and place in the prescription box.

Please allow THREE full working days (72 Hrs) for prescriptions to be processed and remember to take weekends and bank holidays into account.

For your own safety and security, no verbal or telephone requests will be taken. Please be mindful about weekends and Bank Holidays since you may have to put in a request well in advance.

To request repeat prescriptions, submit a request either in person or online (via the link at the top of this page).

Please do not telephone for repeat prescriptions, as requests cannot be taken over telephone.

Medication Reviews

Patients on repeat medication will be asked to see a doctor, nurse practitioner or practice nurse at least once a year to review these regular medications and notification should appear on your repeat slip. Please ensure that you book an appropriate appointment to avoid unnecessary delays to further prescriptions.

Electronic Prescribing Service

This practice is set up for the electronic prescription service.

This means that for most patients we can send your prescription to your chosen chemist directly saving you having to come down to the surgery.

To get your prescription sent to your chosen pharmacy you will have to ask reception to sign up.

For more information about electronic prescribing services.

Wasted Medicine

Is everyone's responsibility and there are small changes you can make to help reduce the amount of medicine being wasted. These savings could be reinvested into more front line care and services that benefit all. Unused medication cannot be recycled. It must be thrown away, whether or not the packaging has been opened.

DID YOU KNOW:
Unused prescription medication cost the NHS in the UK an estimated £300million each year. This could pay for........ 11,778 More Community Nurses or 80,906 MORE Hip Replacements or 312.175 MORE Cataract Operations or more drug treatments courses for breast cancer or Alzheimer's.

Only Order the medication that you require, and never over order.

More information on Medication Wastage

Medication Wastage leaflet

Spending NHS Money Wisely

Changes to prescribing and other services

In order to protect funding our most essential health services - things like cancer care, emergency care, life threatening conditions and mental health services - GPs across Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge are making further changes to prescribing and other NHS services. From January 2018 we have:

  • Stopped prescribing over the counter sleeping tablets, sunscreens, anti-malarial medicines
  • Stopped certain ‘non-essential’ procedures
  • Restricted who is eligible for cataract surgery and podiatry.

Like many areas across the country, we are faced with some very difficult choices to protect essential health services. The care and treatment that we provide every day for patients is funded by taxpayers’ money. That’s why we have a duty to spend it wisely, to make sure we get the best value we possibly can for every penny – especially when NHS funding is being severely squeezed and we are seeing more patients with more complex health issues than ever before.

Why are we doing this?

Like many areas across the country, we are faced with some very difficult choices to protect essential health services. The care and treatment that we provide every day for patients is funded by taxpayers’ money. That’s why we have a duty to spend it wisely, to make sure we get the best value we possibly can for every penny – especially when NHS funding is being severely squeezed and we are seeing more patients with more complex health issues than ever before.

To protect essential services in our area we have to make savings of £55 million and we must look at further reducing spending now. Local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) recently held an eight week public consultation talking about some of the things we thought we could save money on.

A full breakdown of the proposals and what was approved is attached and is also now available on our websites:

Unfortunately, no change is not an option, and it’s up to us – with the public’s help - to get the local NHS onto a secure and sustainable footing to make sure we can maintain those vital services for you and your families.

The areas of NHS spend listed above add up to around savings of up to £3.75 million a year. These are services and treatments that aren’t life threatening, as we want to make sure that local people will always be able to get treatment for conditions like cancer, heart disease and serious mental illness.

We know some of these decisions won’t be popular, but we have to look at where we can save money so we can protect priority, lifesaving services for all.

Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Groups