'Prescribing wisely'


We are being asked to cut down our prescribing in NW London

The NHS in NW London CCGs: Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster spent over £13 million in 2016 on products that can be bought without a prescription at community pharmacies.

The NHS is under pressure. Our budgets are not large enough to pay for all the treatments the public would like us to provide. We would therefore like to spend less on medicines you can buy without a prescription so as to free up funds for other valuable NHS services.  

So practices across North West London are being asked to stop routinely prescribing medicines which are available to buy over the counter in pharmacies (and, in the case of some medicines, in supermarkets and other shops too). If a medicine you need can be bought without a prescription, your GP may ask if you are willing to buy it.  If you are not willing to buy it, it will be prescribed.

More details here


Here is a list of commonly prescribed medicines which are available without a prescription 

Additionally, we are recommending patients to order their repeat prescriptions from us (easiest to use the online service with an App: Patient Access - easy to sign up to) 

The reason is we often find if the pharmacy orders on behalf of patients, they order all the medicines on the list, whether or not the patient needs them. And so many patients have ended up with large stocks of unwanted items, costing a huge waste of money to the NHS. So it is better to select for yourself just what you need - and it is so easy. 

We send the items directly to the pharmacy of your choice by EPS (Electronic Prescription Service) - that saves you coming to collect a paper prescription and reducing the chance for lost or delayed items.





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