A Repeat Prescribing Toolkit was published yesterday (October 8) by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in an attempt to reduce the amount of wasted prescriptions.

After a 2021 National Overprescribing Review suggested that around 100 million prescriptions – at least 10% of the total number issued in primary care – did not need to be issued, NHS England (NHSE) commissioned a toolkit in 2023 to help practices and pharmacies assess their repeat prescribing arrangements and identify areas in need of improvement.

Of the over one billion prescriptions, dispensed in England every year, some 77% are repeat prescriptions. 

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The guidance could reduce both overprescribing and polypharmacy by addressing “inconsistencies and potential oversupply, whilst reducing unnecessary medicines waste,” they said. 

As well as the toolkit, the NHS Business Services Authority has also developed a dashboard to address repeat prescription issues such as minimising avoidable waste and protecting patients from harm. 

Clare Howard, RPS fellow and clinical lead author, said the toolkit was a “significant step forward in ensuring the safety and efficiency of repeat prescription systems.” 

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RCGP honorary secretary Dr Michael Mulholland stressed that “safe and appropriate prescribing is a key skill for GPs” and added, “we need to make sure we are always streamlining and improving the process.

“This new toolkit aims to support GP practice teams and primary care networks, working with community pharmacies and patients, to create a collaborative, safe and efficient process for repeat prescribing with the aim of improving practice processes, patient care and reducing waste.” 

The RPS and RCGP toolkit includes information on medication safety, processing mapping, training resources, and suggestions on how to improve repeat prescribing in the future.

It is the first “national good practice guidance on repeat prescribing” in two decades, RPS and RCGP said. 

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This move comes after the government-commissioned review led by chief pharmaceutical officer Dr Keith Ridge in 2021 found that “a reduction in the volume of prescription items in primary care of 10% is realistic” – equivalent to around 110 million items a year. 

The review highlighted that there had been a rise in prescription items issued in primary and community care, from 10 per head in 1996 to 20 per head in 2016. 

It also reported that the number of patients on multiple medications had risen steadily in recent decades, with around 15% of the population now taking five or more medicines daily and 7% taking eight or more each day.