If you don’t use it, we can’t reuse it!
Wasted medicines cost NHS Forth Valley approximately £1.2milion every year. When medicines leave the pharmacy they cannot be recycled, reused by anyone else or sent abroad – those which are wasted are all destroyed.
Wasted medicines can arise when your GP changes or stops a medicine, but you can help us to reduce wasted medicines in other ways.
Before ordering your prescription have a look in your medicine cabinet to see what you have and only order the medicines you really need, and if you have stopped taking a medicine let your GP or pharmacist know.
Unused and unwanted medicines should ALWAYS be returned to the pharmacy for safe disposal. NEVER put medicines in the bin or flush them down the toilet.
To help the NHS reduce wasted medicines, ALWAYS:
THINK before you order repeat medicines
CHECK what medicine you already have – and only
ORDER what you need!
If there are any medications you no longer use, please advise the receptionist who will arrange to have them removed from your repeat medications.
The video shown below shows how we can reduce the waste on repeat prescriptions, wasted medication impacts on our NHS services.
