Wasted Prescription Medicines

South West London Medicines Optimisation teams are working together on a project to reduce medicine waste by improving the quality of repeat prescribing/ordering systems and enabling patients to manage their own repeat prescriptions according to need.  Patients and carers are central to the process and it is important to recognise that non-adherence may be an issue. The SWL project seeks to empower patients with the emphasis on using digital systems i.e. patient online systems for reordering repeat prescriptions to reduce avoidable waste.

The key elements:

• Promoting online ordering systems to patients
• Promoting good practice in systems for repeat prescription ordering in community pharmacies and GP practices
• Identifying key areas to reduce medicines waste e.g. DACs or third- party appliance contractors