Alderley Edge Medical Centre is no longer accepting repeat prescription requests directly from pharmacies for most patients.
NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which plans and buys health services for 204,000 people in East Cheshire, has joined forces with GP practices and local pharmacies to encourage people to take charge of ordering their own repeat prescriptions in a bid to reduce waste.
Many people already manage their own repeat prescriptions by placing their requests with their GP surgery or ordering them online. However, the CCG is encouraging more people to follow suit and do the same, rather than community pharmacies ordering repeat prescriptions on their behalf.
The reason they're promoting this change is because experience around the country suggests that it can be safer and reduce medicines waste because when a pharmacy orders for a patient, especially when ordering in advance, it may not always know if medicines have been changed or how much stock a patient already has. This can sometimes mean that medicines are being ordered that are not needed, which can lead to some patients building up a stockpile of medicines at home.
Dr Mark Dickinson, head of prescribing and medicines optimisation, said: "We believe that patients are best placed to know of any changes that have been made to their medicines by their doctor, and what medicines they have used in the past month, and can therefore order what they need.
"We expect that patients taking control of the medicines they order will improve safety and also reduce medicines waste at a time of significant financial pressure for the NHS."
Alderley Edge Medical Centre is one of sixteen GP practices across Cheshire that are no longer accepting repeat prescription requests directly from pharmacies for most patients. This change will not affect people who already order their own repeat prescriptions from their GP surgery.
Patients at Alderley Edge Medical Centre are recommended to order their own medicines either online - via the Patient Access system - or by dropping off or posting your repeat prescription form to your GP surgery.
Other local GP practices that are currently making this change to the way that repeat prescriptions are ordered include Chelford Surgery, Kenmore Medical Centre and Wilmslow Health Centre who will be writing to those patients identified as suitable to order their own repeat prescription.
