Wes Streeting has been trying to save money for the NHS this week by scrapping NHS England. Lucky for him, our dispensing team know how we can help him out even more with the savings. Did you know the NHS spends 300 million pounds each year on unused medication?
Every month Kingstone dispensary team tally the cost of medications returned to us unused, and this month has been a bumper one with over £1,000 worth of unused inhalers coming back:
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(The carbon emissions of these inhalers is approximately the same as a return car journey from Hereford to New Dehli)
As I have mentioned before, we are not able, legally, to re-use these medications (not even to send them to parts of the world where they are desperately needed). From the surgery we have to send them to be disposed of. There is even a further -not inconsiderable- cost to the NHS for their transport and later incineration.
So how can you help? Quite simply, by ONLY ordering what medications you need each month. If someone else collects and re-orders medication for you, please remember to let them know if they keep requesting something you do not need every month.
On another note, our GP registrar Dr Najia Khan has finished her four month placement with us and has moved on to work in public health. Our next registrar will be returning to us from Hereford County Hospital in August.
Finally, The Kingstone Surgery Charitable Trust have been making huge efforts to help fundraise for a dispensing machine so people can collect medications 24 hours a day from our car park. Their next community even is Bingo Night – 16th May at the Kingstone Village hall. We hope to see some of you there!
