The annual cost to the NHS of admissions to hospital resulting from mainly avoidable harms from medicines in the community is estimated as £359 Million
The NHS spends £8billion on medicines a year and issues 752 million
prescriptions.
According to the National Audit Office, medicines worth
over £100million are returned unused every year but this is a cautious estimate
of the total drugs wastage as it only relates to medicines actually returned.
The Department of Health estimates that as many as 1 in 9 households have at
least one prescribed medicine no longer being used.
Pharmacy
based services such as Medicines Use Review and repeat
dispensing are proven ways of ensuring prescribed medicines are used rather than
being thrown away.
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Preventing medicines being wastedThe NHS spends £8billion on medicines a year and issues 752 million
prescriptions.According to the National Audit Office, medicines worth
over £100million are returned unused every year but this is a cautious estimate
of the total drugs wastage as it only relates to medicines actually returned.
The Department of Health estimates that as many as 1 in 9 households have at
least...
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79% of people in Great Britain have a community pharmacy within one kilometre of their home, and 47% have one within 500 metres. Maybe you could walk to your local pharmacy? You could benefit your health and the environment at the same time.
Simply enter you postcode below to return a list of pharmacies in your area. If you are looking for a particular service that your local community pharmacy offers then use the drop down filter to select this.