Frequently Asked Questions: Prescriptions

Repeat prescriptions are medications which appear on the reverse of your prescription which your doctor would like you to continue on a regular basis.

Repeat prescriptions will be authorised by us within 48 working hours from the time you submit your request. Please speak to your pharmacy to ask how long they take to prepare the prescription once they have received the order from us so you know when to collect it. Please note if your prescription request is NOT on your repeat prescription your request will take longer to process and the doctor may wish to speak with you. Delays may also occur if your medication request is different from what your doctor has prescribed for you.

If you run short of medication unexpectedly, your regular Pharmacist may be able to help you pending a repeat prescription being ordered in the normal way.

Many chemists offer a delivery and collection service. Speak to your preferred chemist directly for details. This means that you do not have to come to the surgery to collect your prescription and then take it to a chemist.

Please see our repeat prescriptions page

We will authorise your prescription request usually within 2 working days (excluding weekends and bank holidays. Please note this does not mean that your prescription will be ready to collect from your pharmacy at this point. Please speak to your pharmacy to ask how long they take to prepare the prescription once they have received the order from us so you know when to collect it.

EPS makes it possible for your prescription to be sent electronically to the pharmacy of your choice. By nominating a chosen pharmacy, you will no longer have to collect a paper prescription from us. Instead, you go straight to the pharmacy to pick up your medication. As the pharmacist will already have received your prescription, they may be able to prepare your items in advance so there may be no extra wait time. However, this depends on the capacity of the pharmacist on the day and may not be possible at all times.

See the Electronic Prescription Service page

After many years of accepting repeat prescriptions requests over the telephone, like many other surgeries we have taken the decision to stop this service.

Learn more about why we do not accept prescription requests over the phone.

Please see our prescriptions page for more information about the other ways of ordering your medication.

Yes, you can, although we ask for you to make us aware of this when you make the request.

It is not always appropriate to add or continue to keep a medication on repeat. This may occur if:

• The medication is a short course.
• Medications that are changing or need regular dose adjustments.

The hospital will send us a discharge summary, outlining any actions for GPs, medication changes and ongoing management changes. This summary will be added to your records and passed to the GP to review and action. The hospital should discharge you with a week’s supply of medication to give us the time to make the necessary changes, however, you can always contact us if there are any problems.

You may be due a medication review and your GP needs to assess that you remain suitable to receive repeat prescriptions. You will be notified if you are required to make an appointment.

You might not have ordered with sufficient time for the surgery to process you request, it takes 48 working hours to be authorised.

The surgery may need to contact you if there is a query so make sure your contact details are still correct.

There may be circumstances outside of our control such as staff sickness or logistic challenges with problems with medication supply issues.

You won’t be notified that your prescription request has been authorised but depending on the method you used to request your medication you may be able to see a notice that your prescription has been approved and has been sent to your nominated pharmacy. This is available on the NHS app. Please speak to your pharmacy to find out how long they usually take to prepare your prescription once they receive the order from us. Depending on the pharmacy you use they may notify you (e.g. via text) that your prescription is ready to collect.

Patients on repeat medication will need a medication review at least once a year but it could be more regularly. Depending on the medication you are taking the review may be done without needing a consultation. Many medications require monitoring such as blood tests and we will usually contact you when these are due. If you are informed that you are due a medication review by ourselves or your pharmacist please contact us to arrange this.

You can request it in that same way as you would with repeat medication, but the request is sent to your doctor to approve. There will be a delay as your doctor may feel the need to discuss this further with you so an appointment may be necessary.

You will need to speak to the pharmacist directly to see if this is a service they are able to offer.

Please do not throw any unwanted or out of date medicines in the bin. Instead, take it to your local pharmacy to be disposed of safely.

If it is an electronic prescription, you will need to ask the pharmacy to return it to the spine for it to be available to download by any other chemist. Ensure that the pharmacist provides you with the barcode of the prescription as the other chemist will need this to find your prescription on their system. If this is not provided the other chemist should still be able to find the prescription if you tell them your NHS number.

If it is an item on an electronic prescription where you have received some medication/s then you will need to contact the surgery to ask for another prescription to be issued. Please inform us of the other pharmacy you would like this prescription to be sent to or alternatively we can send the prescription electronically so that all pharmacies can view this. In this case you just need to go to any pharmacy and tell them your NHS number and they will be able to find the prescription on their system and give you the medication (assuming they have it in stock).

If your prescription was on green paper, then you can just take this to any other chemist.

As above, they can return it to the spine for you to collect from another chemist.

Please contact us and your request will be looked at by one of our GPs or pharmacists. If an appointment is required to complete your medication review you will receive details of this usually within 24 hours of submitting your request.

You can easily change your nominated pharmacy via the NHS app or Patient Access. If you are unable to use these then please send a request to change your pharmacy online or call the surgery on 01865 597023.

Yes assuming you are in England, Scotland or Wales. Please contact us to let us know the address of a local pharmacy where you want to collect your medication from. The prescription request will then be sent to your GP who will usually approve the request within 48 hours unless they feel the need to speak to you first. We will send the prescription electronically to this pharmacy. Please speak to the pharmacy to find out when your prescription will be ready to collect once it has been approved by us.