Help reduce medication waste and support the NHS across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.  

Pharmacists and GPs across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are asking people to help the local NHS by only ordering the medication they need from their repeat prescriptions. 

A report by the Department of Health estimates that unused medicines cost the NHS around £300 million every year and a large amount of medicine items are wasted unnecessarily in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent each year. We need your help to reduce this. 

It is important to check what medicines you have at home before placing your repeat prescriptions order. A significant amount of repeat prescription medicines are not used and returned to pharmacies for destruction or disposed of in other ways which are bad for the environment.  

Ordering unnecessary medication can increase the risk of medicines shortages in pharmacies and we want to make sure essential medications are available to those who need them most. We want people to have the right medicine and the right care, while reducing the amount of medicine waste.  

• Only order the medication if you need it – repeat items still remain on your prescription, even if you don’t order them every month. 

• Try keeping all medication in one safe place at home, so you can see what you have left and what you need to reorder. 

• For each prescription, take medication from one pill packet at a time, so that you can keep a track of what you’ve taken and what you have left 

If you have questions about your prescription or need some support, speak to your pharmacy team.  Unused or out of date medicines and inhalers should always be returned to your pharmacy for safe disposal. 

The materials for this campaign can be found on the campaign resource centre.