Dear Patient
We would like to inform our patients that from 1st June 2017 Church Street Medical Centre will no longer be
accepting prescription requests made on your behalf by your nominated pharmacy, although the pharmacy
will still be able to collect your prescription (if not sent electronically) from us on your behalf 2 working days
after you have ordered it.
This decision has been made by the Partners following patient complaints to our surgery relating to a
number of errors made by the pharmacy teams in ordering incorrect prescription items, ordering items that
were not yet required by the patient and causing a stock pile of medications in the home and, in particular,
ordering, without first checking with the patient, items of medication that were no longer prescribed.
We do understand that for some patients the ‘Pharmacy Ordering Service’ is a convenient method of
ordering your items of repeat medication; however some of the errors that have occurred with dispensing
and the wastage of medicines involved mean that the Partners here no longer feel this is a safe and effective
way of accurately ordering your repeat medication.
There are a number of ways our patients can request their repeat medications:
•
for those patients who would like on-line access to their medication record please ask our reception
staff for further details of this effective and accurate way of ordering your repeat medication yourself
•
we accept written requests, either handed in to reception or posted to the surgery
•
we accept prescription requests you may wish to fax to us – our fax number is 01773 534295.
We continue to refuse prescription orders over the telephone due to the possibility of errors in prescribing
and the need for an audit trail. We would ask you to use the options described above.
We understand this change may well cause considerable inconvenience to some of our patients and
because of this we will be happy to consider requests from the ‘Pharmacy Ordering Service’ to continue to
order on your behalf in exceptional circumstances, such as the need for pre-filled dosette boxes or when the
above methods may not be suitable. We would ask that you speak to our Prescription Lead, Michelle to see
if you meet the criteria as a vulnerable patient.
Any outstanding Pharmacy orders will not be accepted after this date.
Many thanks for your understanding in this matter. If you would like to discuss this further please contact the
patient experience team on 0800 028 3693 (Option 2) or by email [email protected]
Drs N Atkinson, D Smith, P Scullard and F Akbari
VAT Registration No: 878 5386 57
Dr N S Atkinson  Dr C D Smith  Dr P Scullard  Dr F Akbari 