NEWS: New Toolkit Aims To Improve Repeat Prescribing

As reported by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, A new guide from RPS and RCGP offers practical steps for GP practices and pharmacies to streamline the repeat prescription process, improving safety and efficiency

A new toolkit aimed at helping GP practices and pharmacies improve the consistency, safety and efficiency of repeat prescribing has been published by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and RCGP.

The toolkit is the first national good practice guidance on repeat prescribing in 20 years.

With over 1 billion prescriptions dispensed annually in England, 77% of which are repeat prescriptions, the need for efficiency and safety is paramount.

Repeat prescriptions account for nearly 80% of NHS medicine costs for primary care. The significant workload caused by repeat prescriptions necessitates streamlining and improvement, which is recognised with resources provided by NHS England on aligning capacity and demand in general practice.

The toolkit also includes practical guidance on improving communication with patients about repeat prescribing, supported by good practice case studies, flow charts, action plan templates, and useful resources.

Alongside the toolkit, a new NHS dashboard is available, highlighting the scale of potential oversupply of medicines for a range of prescribing areas. Oversupply is when more medication is dispensed than is typically needed or wanted by the patient. The dashboard will support improvement initiatives, particularly around addressing inconsistencies with repeat prescribing processes, to help to minimise avoidable waste or the risk of harm to patients.