I know we have to be careful but.....

stickywicket

Just before Christmas my GP changed the Lansoprazole, which I’d been on for years, to Omeprazole because the latter comes in 20mg doses and two can be taken per day, unlike Lansoprazole, which comes in 30mg doses and only one can be taken per day. This finally sorted out months of stomach problems.

Last week I ordered a repeat – a double repeat as we are going away. Picked it up today. It’s the wrong one. Rang surgery. They’ll do the right one. Rang chemist. Any use for 2 pristine packs of Lansoprazole? No. They have to bin them.

I do understand. I don’t want to think I could be given meds that someone else could have taken home, stored at the wrong temperature or even tampered with. But, they’ve known me for years at both the surgery and the chemist. I’ve only had the pills for an hour. They are individually wrapped in foil. Surely there has to be some system better than this.

dreamdaisy

I know it seems ludicrous but I think it's right. As you say they have known you for years but I don't think that should make a difference. It makes you wonder (well, it makes me wonder, to be more accurate!) just how many meds are wasted per year due to mix-ups like this. Competent administration appears now to be a dying art in so many areas of life. DD

traluvie

I can remember when they used to take any unused tablets from you, i used to always feel better handing any leftovers to chemist..
Nowadays i never have any left over lol but am aware they have stopped taking meds, does seem such a waste...

SheilaD

I work in a Pharmacy as a health care assistant. I see loads of medication being thrown away which has just been issued to a customer and its the wrong one. Depending on the Pharmacist they can take them back and re enter them back into the stock records providing they do not go out of the shop. It is really terrible how all the medication is just thrown away just because the Pharmacist cannot be bothered to re enter items back into the system. There is over a billion pounds worth of medicines thrown away each year which most could be put back and reused!

Also there are a lot of medications issued especially to the old, infirm and young that do not get used and are brought back into the pharmacy to be destroyed. Did you know that the blue inhalors are worth £100 each and are often thrown away unused as the customer decided they do not need them. Total waste of money which could be used else where.

Hope everyone is as well as can be expected

Love n hugs

SheilaD xx

Turbogran

I had that a little while ago when i went to collect my repeat perscription
and although i had said i did not need my asthma inhalers the doctor had prescribed 2 brown and 2 blue told chemist I did not need them as my asthma is so well controlled that i only use them when i have a cold. and was told well dr has prescribed them you may as well have them. what a waste.

diamond

I also worked in a pharmacy as a pharmacy assistant but had to retire early due to my wonky knees etc.Our policy was to list drugs returned for whatever reason and bin them.Once a prescription leaves the premises it was not considered safe to dispense this to anyone else.Many meds were returned in vg condition.A hell of a lot of money is wasted ,but unfortunately the risk is there that they could be tampered with.It may be that Mr Smith who comes in regularly is a lovely man but we never can be 100% sure that he has not added a little extra ingredient.Sad world i know but that is the situation.

hileena111

Hi Sticky
I used to be on omneprozol {ex GP} after I changed GPs...the first prescription was omenpeozol but the secone was Lansoprozol.....I mentioned this to the GP and she said there's no difference when you finish the omneprozol just take the other and it has been like that ever since....Lansoprozol. I accepted it but now wondering how much difference it will make. Havent had any problems with either

Love
Hileena

dreamdaisy

I always take unused meds back to the chemist in the full knowledge they will be destroyed, but the level of waste would appear to be astonishing. I wonder if this is a contributing factor to meds now being issued for a month - less waste maybe? DD

stickywicket

hileena111 wrote:

Hi Sticky
I used to be on omneprozol {ex GP} after I changed GPs...the first prescription was omenpeozol but the secone was Lansoprozol.....I mentioned this to the GP and she said there's no difference when you finish the omneprozol just take the other and it has been like that ever since....Lansoprozol. I accepted it but now wondering how much difference it will make. Havent had any problems with either

Love
Hileena

I think it shouldn't make any difference at all, Hileena, as they seem to be virtually interchangeable unless you need a higher dose.

tjt6768

at one point I was on lanzoprazole three per day, but just for a couple of months then back down to one per day..

Best of luck..

I agree with the waste thing. Lots of it but I suppose the pharmacy can never be too sure about tampering etc. I suppose it's down to us as individuals not to order stuff we don't need..
I know I'm guilty of over ordering stuff before.. :oops:

tiggernut

I know it's crazy.When I had my infection a couple of years ago I had the district nurse coming every day to give the IV antibiotics and change the dressing.
When I finally went in to hospital for the skin graft I didn't need her anymore.
I had loads of syringes, needles bandages, gauze and 24 inodene dressings and other bits and peices. All un-opened but she wouldn't take them she said she couldn't and for me to keep it.I also asked at the Doctors surgery and they said no as well.
There is so much money wasted in the NHS is ridiculous!

amboritic

The issue isn't the NHS as such. Not even the fault of mamagement but more likely to be related to the possible legal issues if a patient was to have adverse side effects and it was later found out that the prescribed medication was previously given to somebody.

There is also the Infection Control issues aswell that need to be co.sidered.

If you are given two Co-Codomols at A/E then they will come from a blister pack usually and more than one patient will get them from the same blister pack.

After the way I have been treated by my former employer I am no NHS fanboy.

But thought I would point out that there are other things to be taken into account.

As far as I was led to believe the only reason to bring old meds back to the pharmacy was for safe descruction. i don't think they were ever reused.

scozzie

Hi all, I agree it's a huge waste - I try to manage my meds with my pharmacy, telling them only what I need the following month (I have asthma and OA). It can be a nightmare if I get the wrong assistant! Two of the three assistants are great and only order the drugs I request, the other is just plain useless! I rarely use my blue inhalers, as my asthma is well controlled, as such I really only need to reorder it when it reaches the use by date!
The dippy assistant has a tendency to order ALL my repeats, even if I only request one item! The cocos are the only ones I need to order monthly as they only give me enough to last four weeks.
At times I've tried to refuse the extra items, only to be told that they'll need to be binned if I don't take em with me! And they haven't even be been passed across the counter at that stage!
So I usually try to avoid the not so good assistant when ordering my repeats ... maybe it's my accent? Lol
Scozzie