As a retired research pharmacist and now as a patient collecting repeat prescriptions for myself and my wife, I was interested to learn that, overall, nearly half of all repeats in England are issued for 28 days, the remainder being issued for 56 or 84 days. The authors conclude that, in view of wide variation in practice, their data should inform the policy debate in relation to prescription duration in England. In South Derbyshire, where we were separately registered with non-dispensing GP practices until about a year ago, the standard issue for a repeat prescription for both practices was for 84 days, so we were disappointed to discover, upon moving to South Oxfordshire, that our new GP dispensing practice issues 28-day repeats. The new practice’s 28-day policy means that, as my wife’s medication runs out at a different time from my own, we have to request repeat medication every 2 weeks with concomitant journeys to a pharmacy to arrange collection. In comparison with issuing 84-day prescriptions, our Oxfordshire practice has a three-fold increase in admin load in approving repeat prescription requests. The practice justifies this in written additional information attached to the repeat prescription slip, saying that ‘[they] supply one month of medication to aid safe prescribing and monitoring of medication and to reduce wastage’. This statement seems disingenuous given that published research confirms that longer durations of prescribing are more efficient for both practices and patients.1 It is hard to imagine why dispensing practices might opt for the more time-consuming process of issuing 28-day repeat prescriptions other than to assume that this boosts income through an increase in prescription fees. It is not surprising that practices might ‘play the system’ in order to make their dispensing service more profitable. But this policy gives rise to inconvenience for patients and inefficiency in terms of wasting practice time on unnecessary administration and is therefore ultimately bad for the NHS. We therefore hope, in future, to see a standardised prescription duration policy in England, in which patients’ needs and preferences are prioritised over practice income.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2025
