MEDICINES WASTE TWITTER CAMPAIGN

Patients are being urged to help cut medicines waste across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire via a Twitter campaign and messages going out from CCGs and GP practices. The LPC is delighted to support these messages:

Please help us to reduce waste medicine

Wasted medicine is everyone’s responsibility and there are small changes you can make to help reduce the amount of medicine being wasted. These savings could be reinvested into more front line care and services for the benefit of all

Across Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire it is estimated that £13.9m per year is spent on wasted medicine.

There are a number of ways that you can help to reduce the issue of wasted medicines and save money for your local NHS:

Only order the medicines that you need

• Please let your GP or Pharmacist know if you’ve stopped taking any of your medicines, they will be happy to talk to you about this
• Check what medicines you still have at home before re-ordering
• Discuss your medication with your GP or Pharmacist on a regular basis
• Think carefully before ticking all the boxes on your repeat prescription forms and only tick those you really need
• If you don’t need the medicine please don’t order it. If you need the medicine in the future you can still request it
• If you need to go into hospital, please remember to take all your medicines with you in a clearly marked bag
• Please also remember that your medicines are prescribed only for you; it’s not safe to share them with anyone else

Remember that unused medicines cannot be recycled

• Even if you never open them, once medicines have left the Pharmacy, they cannot be recycled or used by anyone else
• Please bring your unused medicines to the Pharmacy for safe disposal
• NEVER dispose of your unused or unwanted medicines down the toilet