Understanding the Information on Your Prescription sheets and Responsibilities of the Patient
Alert notices: Please ensure that you check check your prescriptions for MEDICATION ALERTS and updated information. Some Alerts are unique to you. Informing you that you are due a Medication review, blood test etc. There are also some instances where the Practice will use this area to make patients aware of any new urgent information or changes to how the Practice is delivering services.
Even if your prescriptions were initiated by a consultant at the hospital, the Practice has responsibility for ensuring required blood tests and reviews are carried out periodically. If these are not due and the Practice has tried numerous times to arrange them, you may be moved to weekly prescriptions to mitigate risks. If there are any indications that you are due a check-up, please contact the Surgery via telephone to book for an appointment.
Issues remaining: You should receive a prescription request slip when you collect your medication from the Chemist. Under each medication there will be an indication of how many issues are remaining e.g. “1 issues remaining”. This lets you know how many more issues of that medication are possible before your next medication review. If you find that any of your medication have no issues remaining, please contact the practice to book in for a medication review with the IN house Clinical Pharmacist so that these can be re-authorised and the count down restarted. The majority of these reviews can be carried out over the phone. Depending on the medication you may be requested to attend the practice or will be required to have a blood test.
When medications reach “0 issues remaining” any further requests may result in a delay. It is best to be in contact with the surgery when the number gets down to “1”
Medication Reviews – The Rule of Thumb
Patients should have a medication review at least every 12-18 months. If you have not had a medication review in this time please contact the practice to book an appointment with the in house clinical pharmacist. The Practice may have been attempting to contact you.
Keeping Your Contact Details Up to Date
Please ensure that you update your contact details as soon as possible if they change. The Practice will try to contact you if they need to clarify your prescription request, arrange medication review or notify you of any change to your medication. Incorrect contact details lead to delays in prescriptions requests being carried out and also cause delays with any other information being cascaded to you. |