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It was to try and get a better sense of this in so far as if there were any GP surgeries out there with AccuRx AND Repeat Dispensing.

Repeat Dispensing (NOT to be confused with Repeat Prescription although they are similar) is where the GP signs off a Call-Off prescription for xx (usually six) months for regular drugs like those for hypertension, statins etc. It saves GP time that would otherwise be spent slavishly ticking the boxes each month for each patient and for every drug. The Call Off is then managed at the pharmacy. It also saves the patient time in not having to contact the surgery etc to request the repeat prescription each month. It's a Win-Win and was operated by the GP surgery up in Northumberland.

On arriving in Somerset I was surprised to find that neither of the two surgeries I've signed up to - one at the rental near Axbridge and then the permanent one near Wellington - offer RD (medico shorthand for Repeat Dispensing). Both surgeries run on s/w from AccuRx - one of several software suppliers in the UK to GP surgeries.

When I asked why the surgery didn't offer RD I was told that it wasn't the way they did things. Which on the face of it is their choice. But then I got to thinking and applied Roger's First Law. What if the the person I asked didn't actually know why and was perhaps passing on secondhand (and wrong) information. That it was, in fact, down to AccuRx not supporting RD or if they did perhaps it was too spendy?
 
Ok, that is quite a mouthful, and can see your point.

Here in SA a Dr script is valid for 6 months if it repeats.
My nephrologist has it on her system, calls it up, changes dates, then sends to my closest nominated chemist (Dischem).
I can then get the pills at any Dischem around the country, so not an issue when away from home.
I have blood tests every six months, and the script is renewed at that time.
We do have other pharmacies close by with multiple shops, but not country wide.
 
I see what you are after and understand your desire to get onto somewhere who can use the better system.

Although in theory, each practice should have someone who knows, it may be difficult to find the right person who understands what you are asking for.

It might be easier to start at the pharmacy end and ask your most convenient pharmacist which local practices use RD.

(They will understand - it has big benefits for them, in that they can make up packs of regular meds in quiet times, then text the patient to collect them. Good workflow and stock control plus a better service for their customers.)

You might find that some people will refer to a "bulk prescription" instead of RD.

Alternatively, check if your GP practice (or any local alternative) has a pharmacist on the team and talk to them. They will know the details and are there to help you.
 
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Wont help you Rog but RD is the norm here. Forces a bi-annual vist and check up with GP which is no bad thing. Chemist, our local one in the village, will even dispense if the prescription is a few days out of date and will also make sure they hold stock as they know what future demand will be.
 
I'm not sure what the difference is between RD and RP Roger...?

My prescriptions (repeat ones of which there are 5 or 6) and the drugs/medication are sent to me by Pharmacy2U. I could pick up from the pharmacy at the medical practice in Frome but see little point these days in joining the long queues...

My prescriptions cover a 2 month period. When near a certain amount remaining I just order the repeat medication via Pharmacy2U who then contact the medical practice for confirmation and they then dispatch via RM. If any issues Pharmacy2U will notify me.

I used to do this via Lloyd's Pharmacy (then Lloyd's Direct... if I recall correctly? ) instead of queuing up in Sainsbury's when they had an interest store pharmacy. Pharmacy2U took over for the supply via mail.

There are others such as Chemist4U and I'd be surprised if your GP practice didn't allow you to choose to use this type of pharmacy for the medication needed?
 
Accipiter said:
I'm not sure what the difference is between RD and RP Roger...?
Click to expand...
With repeat prescriptions, every time you need a refill you have to ask the surgery to issue a new prescription, which they'll take a day or two to do and send to the pharmacy before you can pick it up. They'll generally have a repeat prescriptions team and won't make the individual GPs do it every time, but it's still an extra process to happen every month. Maybe some will issue the new prescriptions automatically for some medications, but I've never had that happen and have always had to request them each time.

With repeat dispensing, the doctor signs a single prescription for (e.g.) 28 tablets every four weeks for the next six months, and that gets stored on a central NHS system that the pharmacy can look up, see when you last had a batch, and dispense it on the spot. Less paperwork, and if you do ever completely run out it means no extra wait for the prescriptions team that only works between 11 and 2 four days a week to process it.

It sounds like what you've got is a repeat prescription, with a pharmacy that'll do the job of asking the surgery to issue the repeat for you. That simplifies things for you, but still involves a lot of work behind the scenes that could easily be avoided.
 
Accipiter said:
I'm not sure what the difference is between RD and RP Roger...?

My prescriptions (repeat ones of which there are 5 or 6) and the drugs/medication are sent to me by Pharmacy2U. I could pick up from the pharmacy at the medical practice in Frome but see little point these days in joining the long queues...

My prescriptions cover a 2 month period. When near a certain amount remaining I just order the repeat medication via Pharmacy2U who then contact the medical practice for confirmation and they then dispatch via RM. If any issues Pharmacy2U will notify me.

I used to do this via Lloyd's Pharmacy (then Lloyd's Direct... if I recall correctly? ) instead of queuing up in Sainsbury's when they had an interest store pharmacy. Pharmacy2U took over for the supply via mail.

There are others such as Chemist4U and I'd be surprised if your GP practice didn't allow you to choose to use this type of pharmacy for the medication needed?
Click to expand...
Please have another go at reading my text as I'd hoped I'd made things clear. If I haven't then let me know.

EDIT: I see Stephen has done an excellent job!

Our surgery has its own pharmacy
 
Seems all GP surgeries/practices have their own policy for prescription handling. With mine they provide for a two month period.
 
Mine uses AccuRX and does RD for one of my less important drugs. Until literally this week the pharmacy has been A Big One but they failed me in a crisis three weeks ago, so I'm switching to a local independent (highly rated).

AccuRX is pants. I have no idea why you might seek it out, unless the alternatives are worse!

I was supposed to be doing BP tests for a week then submitting them. I had a delay whilst a new, supposedly calibrated BP machine arrived, but I did my daily morning best-of-three, and made a neat CSV file (as that's safe and universal). The AccuRX link had expired ("WOT???"). So I had to call the surgery for another one. The AccuRX system will NOT acept CSV files ("flamin' Nora!" ). So they got a PDF and can jolly stew in it.

In other news, the running total of hospital discharge letters not received in timely fashion by my GP is two, and letters from consultants to my GP is one. The Domestic Controller very kindly took my copy of the most recent discharge letter into the practice for scanning two days ago (a high-def photo from me wasn't acceptable). She waited while a clerical person scanned it in and returned home with it.

That last letter, containing all the drug info the practice is supposed to continue (change of budget!), still wasn't available to the pharmacist yesterday (who had no idea why I'd booked a call, either)..

A certain young lady (that you might once have met at Peter Sefton's), AKA our D.C., is soooo glad to be retired from GP-ery now.

E.

PS: I now have a spreadsheet in Google Sheets, that I'm very pleased with, to manage my own stock of drugs. I do an audit periodically, and put that data into one sheet, and it's auto-updated on another sheet to give an up-to-date running total. It also tracks requests and items dispensed. Being Sheets, it's available on desktop and all devices, and has proven handy in outpatients (who for some lunatic reason ((AccuRX?) have no access to my prescription record, and what they do have lists allergies to drugs I've never knowingly been given!).

I started it because I had reason to suspect a big pharmacy chain wasn't filling the prescriptions correctly. I wanted to track them with better accuracy. That's moot now, as I'm switching to an independent pharmacy, having been badly let down by the big one three weeks ago (the branch had my urgent drugs, had txt-ed me to say so, had a system outage, refused to hand me what as literally on a shelf behind them (and the pharmacist, instead of steering the ship, apparently went home early!).
 
I have a repeat prescription issued at 2 monthly intervals but I need to submit a request to the practice to initiate. I set a reminder on the callendar and do so on their website via system on-line which is quick and simple. The prescription is issued by one of the authorised clerical staff usually the same day and sent to the pharmacy electronically and I can see on my records that it's very rarely signed by a GP.

Previously the pharmacy who was independant was great with the drugs issued within a day or two, text received and 24 hour collection from a hole in the wall dispenser but it's been taken over by a large group and I'm currently still waiting after a week so I might be looking at alternatives.

Ordering the drugs is far less a PITA as taking them. :unsure: I detest tablets of any kind.
 
@Lons ... Sounds like a PITA compared with what I do using Pharmacy2U. They do have a 'reminder' system for when getting short and needing to reorder but I've only been able to set it up for one of the medication I take... most likely down to me but... I manage.

When I'm at 2~3 weeks medication left (of a particular one or two) I'll sign in to the Pharmacy2U site, see the list of meds and order accordingly. If I'm ordering sooner than necessary I'll have to select a reason from the drop down list... holiday, bank Holiday period... As it takes about 4~6 days from ordering to arrive I'm allowing for any issues I feel by ordering with 14~21 days meds left.

I then get a notification that they've got the request, another that it's awaiting GP signature, then when approved and being sent out to be delivered by RM on the 48hr rate. Then a notification from RM that it'll be delivered on X day between X times.

IF there's any issues I get a notification to contact the GP practice... but (so far, 🤞) I've never had any problems.
 
Thanks, both, that's interesting.

My challenge is that I have a lot of different line items, which were all were started on different days of the month and packs contain different numbers of pills/capsules. And some are "take two per day" some are more, and some are "as needed" (for which I have to guesstimate usage rate, but that's not impossible). The current pain meds are a typical example: "up to eight pills per day" for one type, and "up to three per day" for another. There's even one critical one that's every two weeks.

I keep it under control by doing audits (only counting sealed packs usually), and adding a 14-day 'grace' period (in case the scrip isn't filled promptly by the pharmacy, for any number of reasons). The audit resets the count to what stock I actually hold.

Screenshot_20260205_155806_Sheets.png
This is the calculated summary sheet, which updates itself whenever you open the workbook. The traffic-light system is the re-order automatic alert, and the empty column RHS is just to record the re-order dates.

The AUDIT sheet actually drives everything: I save the existing AUDIT (archive sheets are all named by date), then overwrite the actual AUDIT sheet with a count up (on any date I choose) and save it. The summary sheet then shows what needs to go into the next scrip request and the urgency. I can use the reorder date to check I received what I was expecting (sometimes this has NOT happened in the past). I didn't screenshot it as it looks very similar, but the underlying formulae are rather different. The red flags show what happens when stock gets low (just a an example).

I need to update it: presently on twelve line items, although that definitely shouldn't be permanent. The hospital-to-GP handoff has been almost as painful as the actual operation!

Also, some of the current stuff is addictive, and I'm on fairly high dosage. Everyone says "you need to wind down gradually" (including my wife!), but nobody clinical owns it to the extent of actually saying, " in a week cut down to X and a week later, Y" and so on.

It's been quite handy to use in outpatients, as they never seem to have the list the previous person typed-in!
 
Jeez Eric... I take my hat off to you for organising your meds in such a way... you've my best wishes for getting to lower the doses BUT I'd be insisting that the GP/clinic 'nurses' you see give you the full help and timetables for doing so.

My daughter's been in a similar predicament in respect of antibiotics for something the medical profession in the local surgery and at the RUH in Bath couldn't properly diagnose. It's been something like 2~3 years... or seems to have been. She doesn't say much about it when asked except she's 'getting there'.

Best wishes to better days 🙏👍
 
Accipiter said:
@Lons ... Sounds like a PITA compared with what I do using Pharmacy2U. They do have a 'reminder' system for when getting short and needing to reorder but I've only been able to set it up for one of the medication I take... most likely down to me but... I manage................
Click to expand...

I've never found it an issue Frank, takes minutes and only half a dozen times a year after all, also if the ordering date is going to fall when I'm away on holiday for example I'd just put in an early request and they comply. I have 3 regular meds and a couple I only need to order a couple of times a year or less as it runs out so it can't be pre determined without being wasteful.

Picking up the prescription normally hasn't so far been an issue as one of us is in town a couple of times a week, very rarely a queue at the 24 hour machine and if I was stuck the pharmacy is attached to the GP practice where my DiL works.
Another consideration for me is that it's supporting a local business even if part of a chain now rather than getting them on line which Id rather do if I can.

It also means I remember to have a quick look at what's on my records while I'm in the system.

I'm not trying to justify the system but it does work for me and my wife is also happy with it for her regular meds.
 
Eric the Viking said:
Thanks, both, that's interesting.

My challenge is that I have a lot of different line items, which were all were started on different days of the month and packs contain different numbers of pills/capsules. And some are "take two per day" some are more, and some are "as needed" (for which I have to guesstimate usage rate, but that's not impossible). The current pain meds are a typical example: "up to eight pills per day" for one type, and "up to three per day" for another. There's even one critical one that's every two weeks.

I keep it under control by doing audits (only counting sealed packs usually), and adding a 14-day 'grace' period (in case the scrip isn't filled promptly by the pharmacy, for any number of reasons). The audit resets the count to what stock I actually hold.

View attachment 39061
This is the calculated summary sheet, which updates itself whenever you open the workbook. The traffic-light system is the re-order automatic alert, and the empty column RHS is just to record the re-order dates.

The AUDIT sheet actually drives everything: I save the existing AUDIT (archive sheets are all named by date), then overwrite the actual AUDIT sheet with a count up (on any date I choose) and save it. The summary sheet then shows what needs to go into the next scrip request and the urgency. I can use the reorder date to check I received what I was expecting (sometimes this has NOT happened in the past). I didn't screenshot it as it looks very similar, but the underlying formulae are rather different. The red flags show what happens when stock gets low (just a an example).

I need to update it: presently on twelve line items, although that definitely shouldn't be permanent. The hospital-to-GP handoff has been almost as painful as the actual operation!

Also, some of the current stuff is addictive, and I'm on fairly high dosage. Everyone says "you need to wind down gradually" (including my wife!), but nobody clinical owns it to the extent of actually saying, " in a week cut down to X and a week later, Y" and so on.

It's been quite handy to use in outpatients, as they never seem to have the list the previous person typed-in!
Click to expand...
I was also vexed with renewals on different days for the various pills. So just before Christmas I had an epiphany and told the surgery that I was going to be away for several weeks and so could I please have a repeat on ALL tablets. Duly accepted. Collected them all. Put the old remaining part-packs in the drawer for emergencies. Sorted.

I keep the packs-in-progress on the floor by my bed. All synchronised…once I am down to the last week I request another set. Seeing my GP in a week or so’s time and will ask why their policy is not RD since EtV has eliminated AccuRx (it really is pants) from the equation
 
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