4 March 2010
NHSG/24/10
NHS Grampian launches major campaign to reduce medicine wastage
Wasted medication is costing NHS Grampian £9 million every year, the local health board has revealed.
The money lost in Grampian could pay for:
- 1,800 more hip replacements
- 1,260 more heart by-pass operations
- 12,600 more cataract operations
- 270 more community nurses
- 1,620 more knee replacements
In a bid to save money for other vital services, NHS Grampian has enlisted the help of GPs and community pharmacies as part of a major new campaign to tackle the problem.
One of their main concerns is repeat prescriptions that are not actually required. People will be reminded to order only what they need. Once medicines have been dispensed they cannot be recycled and have to be thrown away.
The campaign, which runs throughout March 2010, will encourage people to order only what is needed, not stockpile medicines, and to take all their prescription medicines with them if they are going to hospital.
Patients are also being encouraged to have regular 'medicine use reviews' with their pharmacist or prescribing doctor to discuss any issues they may have with their drugs.
Caroline Hind, Interim Director of Pharmacy for NHS Grampian, said: "We are constantly looking at ways to deliver better and more effective patient care. Unwanted drugs in the home may mean that patients are not getting the benefit they could from their medicines. It also represents a large amount of waste.
"Wasted medicines means wasted money. Medicines returned by patients can't be used again and any money saved could be reinvested in other areas of healthcare to benefit the local community.
"We're encouraging anyone with unused medicine to take it back to the pharmacy for safe disposal, and have a chat with the pharmacist or prescribing GP about how to use medication more effectively."
Thousands of posters and leaflets are being distributed to GP surgeries and pharmacies, and inserts with the key messages will go into prescription bags in pharmacies.
Drug wastage was one of the key elements highlighted in the National Audit Office report 'Prescribing costs in primary care', published May 18, 2007. Using the Department of Health's own estimates, as much as ten per cent of all drugs prescribed are wasted - this means up to £800 million-worth of drugs are wasted nationally each year in primary care.