Prescription Information
How do I order my prescription?
You or your carer must order your prescription directly from the surgery. We cannot accept requests for medication via a pharmacy or other third party. To order your prescription, you can now order online. Alternatively, you can bring in your repeat request slip. We have a collection box for these slips in the lobby so that you do not need to queue at the reception desk.
How do I collect my prescription?
Patients can choose from one of the following three options:
- Collect their medication from Kepple Lane Pharmacy on site. This means your repeat medication will always be ready to collect from the Medical Centre’s Pharmacy after 5 working days.
- Collect their prescription from the surgery reception desk or
- Arrange for another pharmacy to collect their prescription from our reception desk on their behalf.
If you choose option (3) please note that you must contact your chosen pharmacy and arrange this with them yourself.
Please ensure you let us know your preferred option for collection when requesting a prescription.
What about dispensing patients?
We are a dispensing practice which means that patients who live more than a mile from a pharmacy are registered as a dispensing patient. This means your repeat medication will always be ready to collect from the Medical Centre’s Dispensary after 5 working days. You will not need to collect your prescription from reception first.
Kepple Lane Dispensary Opening Times:
| On Monday to Friday we are open | 8:30am to 12:30pm & 2pm to 9pm |
| On Saturday we are open | 12pm to 9pm |
| On Sunday we are open | 8am to 4pm |
Telephone: 01995 607399 (Option 2)
When should I order my prescription?
We have 10,000 patients who take regular medication and therefore need to re-order this on a monthly basis. Many of you have several items and for a variety of reasons, these items are not always all due at the same time during any particular month. This means that some of you are requesting different items at different times of the month. This obviously increases our workload and is an inefficient way of working. In order to streamline this process and provide a more efficient service, we would ask that you only place an order once each month. This may mean that you have a bit more of one item than you may need for that month, but it will save both yourself and us a lot of time by only ordering once a month.
Please order your prescription when you have one week supply remaining of your previous issue.
To avoid delays in waiting for your prescription we do request that you allow the full 5 working days notice between ordering and collecting.
Please note, as the surgery is not open Saturdays and Sundays, any medication ordered (via any method) after 2pm on Fridays will not be processed until Monday.
Please help us to help you by observing the ordering guidelines below.
Please pass this information on to any family member or friend who does not have access to this information. Thank you
| Requests made on Monday, the prescription is ready on | the following Monday |
| Requests made on Tuesday, the prescription is ready on | the following Tuesday |
| Requests made on Wednesday, the prescription is ready on | the following Wednesday |
| Requests made on Thursday, the prescription is ready on | the following Thursday |
| Requests made on Friday, the prescription is ready on | the following Friday |
| Requests made on Saturday, the prescription is ready on | the following Friday |
| Requests made on Sunday, the prescription is ready on | the following Friday |
28-Day Prescribing Policy
The practice adopts a standard 28 day prescribing policy for all patients, in line with NHS England advice. This is because it has been shown to reduce costs (as well as medication wastage). Studies have shown this is best demonstrated when this type of prescribing is done at scale across whole practice populations. This is why manufacturers supply many medications in packs of 28 in order to accommodate these prescribing thresholds.
Our Practice routinely prescribes repeat medication on a 28-day cycle and have done for many years. 28-day prescribing is also in keeping with the requirements for clinical governance, medicine optimisation and augments our team approach to maximising patient compliance with any prescribed medication. Whilst we understand this may be disappointing to some patients, it is a standard practice policy.
We are advised that certain medications such as HRT and contraception be prescribed at longer intervals of up to 6-12 months - again this is based on national recommendations.
Urgent Prescription Request Policy
We are only able to meet urgent requests for repeat prescriptions for certain medications. This will be based on clinical need and NOT patient preference. Any prescriptions requested as urgent, that do not fall into the below categories, will be processed as routine e.g. within 5 working days.
Medications available for urgent prescription requests:
- Asthma/COPD Inhalers
- Adrenaline Auto-Injectors: Epipen, Jext, Emerade
- Anti-Depressants/Mental Health Medications:eg. Sertraline, Venlafaxine, Mirtazapine, Citalopram, Vortioxetine
- Warfarin and other Blood thinners: Rivaroxaban, Apixaban, Dabigatran, Edoxaban
- Anti-Parkinson’s Drugs: Sinemet, Madopar, co-careldopa, co-beneldopa, sastravi, stanek, stalevo
- Immunosuppressants: Azathioprine, Methotrexate, Ciclosporin, Mycophenolate, steroid tablets
- Palliative Care Medications:
- Anti-Convulsants (Epilepsy Medication) Carbamazepine, Gabapentin, Lamotrigine, Levetiracetam, Phenytoin, Sodium Valproate (epilim), Topiramate
- Insulin: Lantus, Novorapid, Humulin, Humalog, Tresiba, Levemir, Actrapid, Insuman, Insulatard etc
- GTN spray
- Paediatric milk
The medications listed are considered treatments whereby potential harmful side-effects may occur if the patient does not receive the medication the same day.
Online Repeat Prescription Requests
If you are a patient aged 16 years or over, you can now order your repeat prescription using the NHS app, myGP app or Patient Access. Once registered, you can also book appointments, view your medical information and change your contact details.
If you haven't registered, please see our Online services page for details on how to register.
Continue to Online Prescriptions
How to order your repeat prescription on the NHS App (youtube.com)
