Guardian Medical Centre in experiencing increased pressure on our service due to requests for medication alternatives. Local pharmacies are asking patients to return to their GP to prescribe an alternative prescription for a medicine they do not have in stock. This is often for commonly prescribed items that should be available from local pharmacies as there is no known supply problem.
We are aware of some national shortages of medications, and we are already prescribing alternatives for these medicines. Medication supply stocks can vary dramatically from pharmacy to pharmacy due to different supply companies that they use, this means some pharmacies may not hold the stock to dispense the medication we have prescribed for you. This may include commonly used antibiotics or medicines where there are no known supply issues.
The number of requests we are receiving is not sustainable for our teams and is taking time away from essential patient care.
Due to this, we have put in place the following policy:
- Patients are required to visit a minimum of three pharmacies to attempt to obtain their prescription
- Patients can contact pharmacies by telephone to check if they have their prescription in stock before visiting
- If after visiting three pharmacies you still cannot get your medication, ask the pharmacist for a name of a medication they do have in stock as an alternative
- Following the above, if you still cannot get your prescription, please contact our prescriptions team on 01925 650226 (option 3) to request an alternative medication is prescribed. You will need to provide: the names of the pharmacies you have attempted to get your prescription from, the medication alternative name and the name of the pharmacy you would like us to send your prescription to.
Thank you for your cooperation to help us keep our service sustainable for our patients.
