Patient information

Jubilee Street Practice has a comprehensive repeat prescribing policy to ensure the safety of our patients and to make sure we are using medicines appropriately. Our policy is regularly reviewed to ensure we keep up to date with the latest guidance.

Key information for our patients:

• Our standard repeat prescription duration is up to two months (usually this will be 56 days). In exceptional circumstances, NHS England allows us to issue up to a 12 week maximum supply.
• We aim to review all prescription requests within two working days but if your request is straightforward they will often be issued earlier than this.
• If you request a medicine that is not on your repeat list, or order it earlier than it appears to be due, your request may be rejected and you may be contacted by the practice and asked to provide more information. This will usually be via text message.
• For safety reasons, some medications may not appear on your repeat list. This may be because we need to review how well they are working for you with regular monitoring, or because they are a higher risk or ‘controlled’ medication.
• Please be aware that ‘Repeat dispensing’ refers to a batch prescription that you do not need to order each time. Normal ‘repeat’ medications will need to be requested each time you require them.
• It is best practice for ALL repeat medications to be reviewed on at least an annual basis. Sometimes your GP or pharmacist will be able to do this from your notes but we may also call you to discuss or ask you to attend an appointment if you take more than 10 medicines regularly or take medicines that require blood tests or other monitoring. This is an opportunity to ask questions about your medicines and to discuss how well they are working for you.

These are known as ‘emollients’ and are really important for the maintenance and treatment of dry skin conditions where they need to be used frequently to prevent dryness and itching – often up to four or five times a day.

Funding on the NHS is only for diagnosed skin conditions. Mild dry skin is something most people experience from time to time and simple emollients (moisturisers) can be purchased from any supermarket, health shop or pharmacy.

Due to the large quantities of these products prescribed by GP practices, we are asked to prescribe from an approved list of cost-effective products. Many of these contain exactly the same ingredients as more well-known brands, for example ‘Zerodouble’ is the same as ‘Doublebase’ and ‘Aproderm’ is very similar to ‘Aveeno’.

Bath and shower emollients are no longer recommended on the NHS because a large UK study on children with eczema found that using these products made no difference to the improvement of eczema compared to just using leave on emollients. Instead, we recommend using your normal emollient as a soap or dissolved in bath water. You can find more information about the study at https://www.nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-child/bath-oils-childhood-eczema-provide-no-clinical-benefit/