Emergency Prescription Policy

Many medications can be safely missed for a few days. We will not issue urgent prescriptions for items that can be bought over the counter or for non-essential medication and you may be informed that your medication will be processed following the normal repeat prescription process. If the Doctor feels that your medication cannot be missed, the item will be issued as required. We reserve the right to withdraw the service to patients requesting urgent prescriptions on a repeated basis.

Medications that WILL NOT be issued urgently:

  • Anything that can be purchased over the counter e.g., paracetamol, ibuprofen, Gaviscon and emollients
  • Nutritional supplements, vitamins, iron, calcium
  • Statins
  • Sleeping tablets
  • Laxatives
  • Antihistamines
  • Nasal Sprays
  • Medicines for reflux such as omeprazole, lansoprazole, pantroprazole, famotidine and nizatidine
  • Progestogens to stop menstruation for holidays
  • Anticholinergics for overactive bladder
  • Solifenacin
  • oxybutynin
  • Antispasmodics – mebeverine, hyoscine, peppermint oil
  • Erectile dysfunction medication
  • Skin creams
  • Regular painkillers
  • Prescriptions following discharge from hospital and outpatient clinics (these should be provided by the hospital

Holiday Medication

Holidays are normally booked weeks or months in advance, therefore when preparing for your holiday, please remember to process a request for your routine medication allowing the normal 3 working days for processing. We can only provide a maximum of 3 months medication and we may request a patient to provide documents to support this request. We are unable to provide emergency prescriptions for holiday medication.

Hospital Prescriptions

When you are seen at the hospital and are given a hospital prescription, you should not leave the hospital without attending the hospital pharmacy to collect the medication. A hospital prescription is not valid in community pharmacies.

If the hospital pharmacy happens to be closed, you must make plans for the medication to be collected the next day. Please note, some hospital medications are not licensed to be prescribed in general practice. If the hospital doctor writes to the practice asking the GP to prescribe medication the prescription will only be following receipt of the letter.

Repeat Medication

Our surgery policy is to process and issue prescriptions within 3 working days and we are committed to doing this. Repeat medication can be requested online by the NHS app or patient access or through your nominated pharmacy,. We do not take prescription requests over the phone. Medication can be requested 7 days in advance, anything before this timeframe, the request will be rejected unless there is a valid reason as to why the request is early.

Please respect our staff

Our reception and administrative staff are to always follow this policy and they are not authorised to make any exceptions. Staff are not allowed to interrupt the duty GP during surgery. This policy is put in place to protect our patients and our staff, and we will not tolerate any abuse to or of our staff as they are following instructions given to them by the Partners.

Thank you for your co-operation