Prescriptions

If you have registered for online access, you can request your medication by ticking the required item on the medication screen.

If you have not registered for online access, you will need to tick what you want on your repeat prescription slip and bring the slip into the surgery.

If you do not have a repeat slip, then you will need to come to the surgery and a member of the team will print one off for you.

In exceptional circumstances, for example if you are completely housebound, have no online access and no family members to act on your behalf, we may authorise your specified community pharmacist to request on your behalf.

GPS Healthcare will be able to sort out your repeat prescription request within 2 working days of the request provided that:

• The medication is on your repeat list
• The request is before the review date

If this is not the case then you should not expect your request to be dealt with within 2 working days.

This delay is to ensure safe prescribing of medicines for you.

You may need to allow at least one week for medication to be available.

(i) If you have never had it from this surgery before

• The request will go to your doctor
• Your doctor may not be available every working day
• The doctor will review your records and decide whether they are happy to prescribe it or if they wish to see you
• If the doctor wishes to see you, a receptionist will contact you and ask you to book an appointment

(ii) There is a hospital letter recommending that you have the medication

In most case the doctor will be happy to issue the prescription without you needing to be seen provided that the letter indicates the diagnosis and the reason why the drug is needed is clear in the letter.

There will be a delay if:

• The letter has not yet arrived at the practice
• The letter is unclear and the doctor needs to confirm the diagnosis or the reasons for the prescription with the specialist
• The drugs we are being asked to prescribe require monitoring eg blood tests
• The drugs we are being asked to prescribe are not usually prescribed by GPs and should be prescribed by the specialist
• The drugs we are being asked to prescribe require a signed agreement between the GP and the specialist

(iii) Drugs you have had from GPS Healthcare in the past but they are not currently on your repeat list

The doctor may be happy to issue the prescription without you needing to be seen. This is likely to be the case if you were recently started on the medication and the doctor wanted to make sure it was suiting you before moving it to your repeat list.

The doctor will consider the type of medication, the number of times you have had it in the past and when you were last seen in relation to that problem.

The doctor will make a judgement on whether it is safe to prescribe the requested drug for you.

The doctor may feel that you need a blood test or an assessment to ensure your safety. The doctor may issue the prescription but request that you attend for further tests or assessment. It is important for your safety that you follow the advice given.

The doctor may not be happy to prescribe the drug again without you being seen. In this case, you will be asked to book an appointment.

(iv) Specialist Drugs

These are drugs that you are being prescribed by the specialist.

We have added them to your repeat medication so that the list shows all the drugs you are receiving regularly – this is for safety to make sure everyone is aware that you are taking a drug not being prescribed by the practice.

We will not prescribe these drugs even though they may appear on your repeat list.

These drugs are listed under the ‘Hospital’ heading on your repeat list if you are viewing them online and will not appear on your repeat medication slip.

You should continue to request this medication from your specialist unless advised otherwise after an appointment at GPS Healthcare.

The request will be passed to your doctor as a prescription query.

The doctor will review your records and decide if they are happy to issue the prescription or not.

Possible outcomes

(i) Prescription issued and review date altered

The doctor is happy that you have had all the necessary issues discussed or checked and it is safe for you to have a further prescription without being seen.

(ii) Prescription issued but review date not altered.

The doctor is happy to give you the prescription but needs to make sure that certain things are done before the next prescription request. The doctor may be waiting for a result or a hospital letter to come back. You may have a note on your repeat slip or be contacted by telephone or letter asking you to book a blood test or bring a urine sample or book for a review with a doctor, nurse or our clinical pharmacist. You must follow the request if you want the review date to be altered with your next prescription request.

(iii) Prescription not issued and review date not altered

This should only occur as a last resort.

For your safety, your doctor feels that you need to be seen before it is possible for a further prescription to be issued.

This is usually the case where advice for a review or a test to be done has not been followed.

Usually, we will only reduce the quantity of medication being issued if we have concerns regarding safe prescribing.

This is often a last resort after repeated failure to respond to requests to have appropriate monitoring or assessments.

Once you have had the necessary check as requested (communicated with your prescription via a message to you and/or your community pharmacist, or via a telephone call or letter from the surgery) then the quantity will be restored to the usual quantity if deemed appropriate following the review.

All such requests are not urgent as if your specialist felt you needed to start the medication immediately, they would have prescribed it at the hospital from the hospital pharmacy or given you a hospital prescription to take to a community pharmacy.

If you have been given a hand written note to hand in then the medication will be issued after the doctor has ensured it is appropriate for us to prescribe the recommended medications
(See question 4)

If you have been started on medication by the specialist and advised to obtain further repeats of it from your GP, then you will need to request the medication from the surgery if you are happy to continue with it.
(Also see question 4)

There are a number of reasons why a request may be rejected.

Repeated failure to respond to requests for a review

Item being requested too early – this can indicate over use of the prescribed medication or item

Item not requested for several months when should have been requested more regularly

Request is inappropriate eg antibiotics or medication documented as causing side effects in the past

Usually the doctor will have given a reason why the request has been rejected.

You can make a request but it will take longer than 2 working days to process the request.

There is no guarantee that the medication will be issued – your safety is our priority.

For all items not on your repeat list, please give a reason for your request.
This reduces the risk of your request being rejected and possibly increases the chance that the doctor will be happy to issue the requested medication.

Our clinical pharmacist or your doctor will indicate if you need anything.

Examples of messages with your repeat prescription are:

• Please book a blood test with the HCA
• Please see HCA for BP check
• Please book with nurse for asthma review.
• Please book medication review with clinical pharmacist

Your medication review date is a guide for your doctor to review your records – it does not mean that you must book a review.

If you need to book a review, your doctor will have sent a message with your repeat prescription.

If your review date is up, please check your repeat prescription slip (given to you by the community pharmacist when you collect your medication) or ask your community pharmacist if there was any message from the surgery with your prescription.

If you have received a message then please show this to the receptionist or if booking online, please indicate this in the slot booking notes.

If you have not been asked to book but would like to have a review then please book a telephone consultation with our clinical pharmacist(s). If you need to have a face to face appointment, our clinical pharmacist will arrange this after speaking to you and reviewing your medical record.

This represents the number of repeats your doctor feels is appropriate up until their next review

For example (2/6) means that 6 repeats of the medication have been authorised by your doctor and you have already used 2. Once you have used up all 6, you can still request the item but it will be passed as a query to the doctor and may therefore take longer than 2 working days to be available and you may receive a message requesting that you book a review.