The Alresford Surgery Newsletter

Dr David Green, Dr Richard Cribb, Dr Peter Stokes
Dr Ann Lowman, Dr Sheila Cassidy, Dr Susan Wright
Station Road, Alresford, Hampshire, SO24 9JL
Telephone No. 01962 732345 Fax: 01962 736034
For general advice or reassurance NHS Direct 0845 46 47
Out of hours 0844 811 3060

Repeat Prescriptions - Important Information

For sometime the Department of Health has been advocating the issue of repeat prescriptions for no more than 28 days.

There are two basic reasons for this policy:

There is huge wastage in the amount of medicine prescribed to patients that is not used representing a massive loss of money that the NHS could use in other ways. We ourselves have substantial amounts of medication returned by patients that is no longer required and has to be thrown away.

The second reason is that a substantial number of patients stockpile medicines that go out of date or of no further use to them. These medicines have on occasions been taken accidentally and can represent a danger to the patient or members of their household.

From January we will therefore be adopting a policy of issuing prescriptions for 28 days. For patients who are over 60 or suffer with particular illnesses there will not be any financial effect.

For those patients who have to pay for their medicines and have in the past been able to obtain repeats for more than 28 days they may wish to consider the purchase of a Pre-Payment certificate which currently costs £81 per year. If you need more than 14 items in a year this certificate will save you money. We can supply the application form from our dispensary.

Preston Candover Surgery

There will be no surgery on the following dates:

• Thursday 12th January
• Monday 16th January