Our unused drugs can make a real difference

[Northerner]

What happens to all those drugs that, for innumerable reasons, remain unused by patients?

According to a recent Department of Health study, these amount to a staggering ?300m a year. Presumably most are brought back at some time to a GP surgery or pharmacy. And from there? To landfill or incineration.

So where does the moral responsibility lie: with patients ordering and not taking medicines, or with the NHS for incinerating, at further cost, unopened packs of medication? Should we be discarding drugs that are pre-packed in sealed blister packs with expiry dates and can be kept at room temperature for years? Well, that's what the regulations demand. So are there any alternatives to this reprehensible and wasteful practice?

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/main-co...rence?sp_rid=NjU3NzMyNzAyOQS2&sp_mid=37247690

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[FM001]

Far too often I've thrown away perfectly unopened drugs but wished they could be reused. A pharmacist I was speaking with said that once drugs are dispensed they cannot be reused and are simply destroyed, even if the nhs don't want these drugs they could be sold at a fraction of the cost to third world countries which would be better than destroying them.

 

[margie]

On one ocaission my FIL was prescribed something only for the Dr to call later to say that they had reviewed things and he wasn't to take them. So they had to go back to the chemist.

 

[FM001]

On one ocaission my FIL was prescribed something only for the Dr to call later to say that they had reviewed things and he wasn't to take them. So they had to go back to the chemist.

A fine example of waste, my mother has had similar experiences.