It is the patients responsibility to ensure that repeat prescriptions are ordered in plenty of time. Many medications can safely be missed for a few days. Emergency or urgent prescription requests are requests for medication which patients need within 24 hours to prevent them from becoming severely unwell.
Emergency medication includes:
• Insulin
• Inhalers
• Antianginal – GTN sprays, beta blockers
• Anti-coagulants – apixaban, dabigatran, edoxaban, rivaroxaban, warfarin
• Anti-psychotic medication
• Anti-epileptic medication
• Adrenaline pens for anaphylaxis
• Palliative care medication
Unfortunately a small minority of patients are repeatedly running out (or just about to run out) of their medication. ‘Urgent’ requests of this nature cause a great deal of disruption to both doctor and dispensary workload, as well as increasing the risks of prescribing or dispensing errors. Please be kind to our team who will always try and help you, but may not always be able to agree to your requests in the timeframe you wish.
If you have run out of repeat medication over the weekend or when we are closed you can call 111, or visit 111 online emergency prescriptions.
Hospital Outpatient Prescriptions
If you are issued a prescription whilst attending a hospital appointment, you should not leave the hospital without attending the hospital pharmacy to collect the medication. A hospital prescription is not valid in community pharmacies. Should you wish to have the prescription fulfilled by us instead, this will be processed routinely over 3 working days – the same as other prescription requests. If the medication is needed urgently or immediately you should return to the hospital pharmacy. Some hospital medications are not licensed to be prescribed in general practice.
Holiday Medication
Holidays are normally booked weeks or months in advance, therefore when preparing for your holiday, please remember to process a request for your routine medication allowing the normal 3 working days for processing.
The NHS does not accept responsibility for supplying ongoing medication for temporary periods abroad of up to 3 months.
However, if you are going to be abroad for more than 3 months, then you are only entitled (at NHS expense) to a sufficient supply of regular medication in order to get you to your destination, where you should the find an alternative supply.
GPs are not responsible for the prescribing of ‘just in case’ items for conditions which may arise while abroad or traveling. e.g: antibiotics, diarrhoea medicine, travel sickness, diazepam for anxious flyers.
Before you travel, find out if there are any restrictions on taking your medicine in and out of the UK, and the country you’re visiting.
Some medicines available over the counter in the UK may be strictly regulated (controlled) in other countries. For more information, visit NHS: Can I take my medicine abroad?
