Pill quantity of prescriptions

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KayVee

KayVee

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Afternoon! Just an idle curiosity on a Sunday afternoon.

I get 112 Metformin tablets per prescription which covers 28 days.

My GP / pharmacy combo is running so slow I'm putting prescriptions requests in every 2 weeks just to make sure I have sufficient for day to day and travel.

I'm curious to know how many tablets / days worth of Metformin you all get at once.

I get 3 months worth of my Thyroid medication at once so I'm just wondering if I can just ask for a bigger prescription or if there's a reason I'm seemingly wasting so much of their time and my own.

(I'm waiting almost 2 weeks for a prescription for new lancets and a sharp bin for my glucose monitor so I bought my own on Amazon)
 
I am not on any pills but have a glut of things related to diabetes : needles, test strips, 3 different types of insulin, Libre, lancers, ...
The length of time they each last seems to depend on the packet size and how much I use (this varies per day).
I kind of get enough of my main insulin to last 6 weeks, enough Libre to last 4 weeks, enough of my other insulins to last 1 year, enough test strips to last 2 months, enough lancets to last a year, enough needles for ... I can't remember the last time I ordered any.
It is probably more challenging because my doses vary and I need alternative back ups but it would be useful if the ones that are pretty consistent (test strips, Libre, main insulin) all last the same length of time. But I get nothing for as long as 3 months apart from my "just in case of failure" supplies. But in case of failure, they would only last a maximum of 6 weeks.

It would be great if the prescribing GP thought about aligning the dosages where possible. It doesn't seem too challenging if you take the same every day.
 
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I get random boxes of Metformin - sometimes 1 (Lasts a month) sometimes 4… when I asked why they didn’t know.
 
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KayVee said:
I'm curious to know how many tablets / days worth of Metformin you all get at once.
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Where there’s a big discrepancy between the frequency of re-ordering I just wait until my annual prescription review and ask them to balance things up a bit.

Doesn’t seem very efficient to me to have to go fortnightly for one, and 3monthly for everything else!
 
I just order monthly and in fact I can't order more frequently than that. My Libre sensors last 14 days and I can only order 2 a month and the rest of my stuff is less frequent than that so I order with my Libre as and when I need those other things like insulin and needles and test strips. I do have to allow 5 days for processing of the prescription before collection but that is a constant so it is still once monthly but just 5 days earl[er than I will actually need them, although in reality I have at least a 7 day buffer zone.
 
I do feel your pain, I have a right faff with my medication, I often wonder how I don’t run out of stuff. My diabetes meds are monthly whereas my migraine and Crohn’s meds last two months.

It’s not too bad because my GP and pharmacy turn a request around within a few days.

I keep saying I need a nomad box like my mum :rofl:
 
My GP is quite slow to approve prescriptions through the online system so mine have to be put through about 1 1/2 in advance at least.

There seems to be no limit per say. My Dexcoms are posted to me every 3 months, I get 4 boxes of test strips when I order and can order more than 1 box of needles if need be. The only things that take longer are autoshield needles and sharps boxes and that’s because they take longer to get in.
 
In one prescription request I get

2 months of metformin
1 month of propanaalol
2 weeks of amitryptaline
2.5 weeks of needles
2.5 months of one insulin
25 days of the other

All nice and consistent then
 
I have no problem with my surgery and Sytemonline. I can order around 3 weeks after for any item after the last script so can build-up a small reserve. My surgery approves scripts normally the same day.
 
I always order what I need. There is absolutely no reason to order everything.
I make sure I have a little buffer (always order Libre when I apply my penultimate, likewise with insulin vials, a month before my spares expire, …). Apart from the annual need to get the script approved, there has never been an issue around ordering too frequently when building up for holidays (or Christmas or Brexit in the past).
 
KayVee said:
I get 112 Metformin tablets per prescription which covers 28 days.

My GP / pharmacy combo is running so slow I'm putting prescriptions requests in every 2 weeks just to make sure I have sufficient for day to day and travel.
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This doesn't really make any sense. If you're getting 28 days supply every 14 days then you must be building a huge stockpile.

I believe 28 days supply is standard, with a re-order no less than 21 days after the last issue. Online systems usually enforce that but if you're putting paper renewals in at the surgery, they're probably just sitting on them because they're too early.
 
I just order when we need to. Insulin seems to be the limiting factor, we get 4 vials at a time but that’s actually a bit too much for a month so I order roughly every 6 weeks, I have quite a good stock which I’ve built up gradually and now try to keep it the same. When it’s time to put in the prescription for that, I check everything else in the cupboard to see if we need anything else and just tick those. Most of the time we only need insulin. The only thing we have restrictions on how often we can order seems to be ketone strips, they will only let me order one box every 3 months, so far that hasn’t been a problem. The reviews are a bit of a joke though, they usually involve either a) insulin being stopped so I have to phone up and ask them to allow it again, or b) things being removed from the list without any consultation with us at all. Most of the things which have been removed we don’t need any more so that’s fair enough, last time they took Lantus off though!! Yes OK we are pumping so only have these in reserve in case the pump fails, so only order one box at a time and then replace it when it’s going out of date, we can’t not have them though!

And then Dexcoms are on a 3-month rolling order which they just send automatically, and the pump cartridges and cannulas I reorder when we have just opened the last box of one or the other and then I get the next 3 months worth.
 
I have a stockpile of all medications except metformin and codeine. I told the Dr although I’m not ordering I’m still taking. Sometimes the chemist still sends all the other meds,which I didn’t order, with my prescription.
 
It’s worth a chat with the practice pharmacist if there is one. Our surgery has a standard aim to give 2 months (2x28 days) of meds on each prescription unless it’s a controlled drug. I still have some older repeats that are 3 months and some newer meds that were prescribed for a month to see how I got on that I’ve had added to my repeat but not changed the quantity of yet. My gabapentin is controlled so I have to order some drugs every month anyway.
 
Insulin & such as & when required, take bp med & get 2 boxes of 28 tabs, they come automatically from pharmacy without requesting.
 
My prescriptions are all for 8 weeks (56 days). What's more, they're all on electronic repeat dispensing. This means the GP has to approve it every 12 months, and then the NHS spine just spits out the prescription at the pharmacy every 8 weeks (usually a week or so before I need them). I then get a text from the pharmacy when its ready to collect. If the delay is at the surgery, maybe ask if you can be put on repeat dispensing so they're not as big an issue?
 
Mine are all 8 weeks. I just log onto their website when I'm down to around 2 weeks and then pop to the chemists a couple of days later.
 
Well I just went to pick up my prescription and there were 3 boxes. They asked if I needed them all, and I said that I only take 1 tablet a day and a box lasts a month (I lied, I forget to take it so often a box lasts two months.) I said I have no idea why sometimes I get multiple boxes - it turns out that the medicine is automatically re-ordered every month, but I'm also ordering boxes through the NHS app when I run out... so the GP is signing that off, and the re-order is automatically happening...

Had no idea about this, as no one has ever said it's automatically reordered and I have no idea what date the re-ordering happens..! More to the point, why has no one at the surgery noticed I'm getting double orders every month! As each order is signed off and they know what dose I'm on.
 
I get 2 months at a time. Apart from my contraceptive pill which they give me a year supply.
When I needed 3 months worth of mess for a 7 week trip they had no issue giving me what I needed.
 
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