From 31 July 2024, patients at Frome Medical Practice and Beckington Family Practice are being asked to 'only order what you need' when requesting repeat prescriptions.

Dr Rob Tippin is a GP Partner at Beckington Family Practice and explained one of the reasons for this change.

"We hope that by asking patients to only order what they need we will improve patient safety," he said.

"When patients are responsible for ordering their own repeat prescriptions, rather than relying on a local community pharmacy to do it for them automatically, it increases their understanding of the medications they are taking and is safer for patients."

Dr Neha Bhagi is a GP Partner at Frome Medical Practice and said: "In addition to worries regarding patient safety, we regularly hear from healthcare professionals and from patients themselves about their concerns regarding medicine wastage and we know it can be easy to stockpile medication at home, almost without realising you're doing it.

"The over-ordering of prescription medications costs the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds every year and making this change aligns with our core value of sustainability and will help save the NHS money."

Repeat prescriptions can be ordered in one of three ways, all of which many patients have been using for some time now. Patients can either:

• submit their repeat prescription request via the NHS App.
• submit their request via their practice website - Frome Medical Practice repeat prescription online form or Beckington Family Practice prescriptions information page
• drop a copy of their paper repeat prescription into their practice or send the request by post.

Automatic repeat prescriptions via a local community pharmacy will no longer be possible.

Support available to patients who need help with using NHS App or online forms

The change will be fully implemented from 31 July 2024, but both practices are encouraging patients to start managing their own prescription requests from now.

This gives patients the chance to download the NHS App if they aren't already using it or to try the online prescription request form, available on the practice websites.

It also means patients have time to get help with either of these options, if needed.

Patients from either practice can attend a digital health café and get support on a range of issues, including:

• help with downloading and using the NHS App
• setting up linked profiles (also sometimes called proxy access) on the NHS App, which is particularly useful for family or friends who support patients with their prescription requests
• using the online prescription request forms available on the websites of both practices. 

The digital health cafe takes place every Thursday from 10am to 11.30am in the cafe at the Cheese & Grain. No appointments are needed but patients are asked to bring their mobile phone or tablet with them if coming along to one of these sessions.