NHS Somerset is urging people to check their medicine cabinets, amid warnings that more than one billion prescription items are wasted every year, costing the health service more than 300 million pounds.
In Somerset, pharmacies dispense around 30-thousand prescription items every day, at a cost of more than 300-thousand pounds. But around five per cent are unused or thrown away, wasting an estimated five million pounds a year.
A pioneering campaign in Somerset has shown the difference local action can make. When one local GP practice ran the “Order what you need” campaign it saved nearly £280,000 in just 12 months, reducing prescribing by 22,300 items.
Medicines waste harms NHS budgets, patient safety and the environment, with incorrect disposal of unwanted medicines — particularly flushing them or throwing them in household waste — polluting waterways, coastlines and ecosystems.
Medicine waste can also pose risks to patient safety. Checks in Somerset found one patient with 119 bottles of liquid morphine, while another household had more than 28-thousand excess doses.
Chief Pharmacist at NHS Somerset, Shaun Green, says check what you already have, order only what you need, and speak to your GP or pharmacist about medicines you no longer take.
And never throw unwanted medicines in the bin or flush them away. Return them to a pharmacy for safe disposal.
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