Repeat prescriptions at Highfield Surgery

Your November issue has a poem concerning repeat prescriptions1 — the poor overworked GP reported that they were rather impenetrable.

As a result of this poem, my own practice prescription clerk has written a poem in return (see below).

Hopefully it can be seen that clinical indications makes light work of this sometimes lengthy chore. I have just been awarded the BUPA Communications Award for 2005 for my work on clinical indications. The prescriptions before me as always each day,I look through the pile I have ‘urgent for today’.I need the ‘blue spray’, ‘the brown pill doctor gave me last week’,‘I'm not doing well’, ‘feeling funny’, ‘feeling weak’. I take a deep breath; let's get the job done,Thank goodness for Nigel, the awards he has won.For clinical indications on every repeat,For blood pressure, heart, water retention, your feet. For your asthma, for hayfever, for hyperthyroidism,To strengthen your bones, or for your heart's natural rhythm.We have cream that will cure that annoying itch,And something also to help with that twitch! So whatever your needs don't ever despair,At Highfield Surgery you will receive special care.You will know why you're taking every capsule, spray, cream or pill,We are here to look after you should you ever fall ill. By Rita Liddiard, prescription clerk at the Highfield Surgery, High Wycombe.

• © British Journal of General Practice, 2006.