In line with prescribing guidelines all prescription will be changed back to 28 day duration.
As a surgery we increased the prescriptions to 56 days during the pandemic to ease pressures on the services all round.
This website NHS Help with Health Costs | NHSBSA has links to the Prescription Prepayment certificates, NHS Low Income Scheme and more.
All future prescriptions will be 28 days, this is to fall inside guidelines and to allow Electronic Repeat Dispensing.
What are the benefits of 28-day prescribing?
You will always start (and finish), the container of each medicine on the same day of the week.
In this way, it will be easier for your doctor to review all of the repeat medicines you are taking and to see if you might be having problems with any of your medicines.
Companies already manufacture a large number of medicines in 28 day ‘calendar packs’ that show the day of the week on the packaging. This packaging allows you to check and monitor that you have taken your medication each day. These packs also have patient information leaflets inside and ideally the pack should not be broken into as they are designed to be supplied with this information included.
28-day prescribing reduces the amount of medicine which is wasted when medicines are stopped or changed by doctors.
It will also reduce the likelihood of needing to make an emergency request if you run out of a medicine.
What is electronic repeat dispensing?
Electronic repeat dispensing is a process that allows a patient to obtain repeated supplies of their medication or appliances without the need for the prescriber to hand sign authorised repeat prescriptions each time. This allows the prescriber to authorise and issue a batch of repeat prescriptions until the patient needs to be reviewed. The prescriptions are then available for dispensing at the specified interval by the patient’s nominated dispenser.
For example, the electronic repeatable prescription may say that the prescription interval is every 28 days and it can be repeated six times. This would give a patient approximately six months’ supply of medication, dispensed every 28 days with the prescriber only needing to authorise and electronically sign once.
