Repeat Prescription Policy for Crawford Medical Centre

       Policy

       Crawford Medical Centre is committed to ensuring that repeat prescriptions are dispensed in accordance with best practice principles.

       Purpose

       To ensure that patients receive repeat prescriptions in a safe and timely manner.

       Proposed Procedure

1.                   Crawford Medical Centre prefers patients to come for review and repeat medications at least every three months.   An earlier review may be needed depending on patient’s condition as per doctor’s advice.

2.                   A repeat medication without consultation after three months can be given if the medical condition is stable and medication unlikely to cause any serious problem.    However, this is always at the doctor’s discretion.

               Examples are:    Inhalers, Analgesics, Losec, Lipex,                  Laxatives, Vitamins, Thyroxine.        

3.                   Patients who have multiple medical conditions, including cardiac, severe respiratory, diabetes and the medications which can cause an unstable condition if not adjusted should be seen every three months.  

4.                  Oral contraceptives can be prescribed without consultation up to 1 year.

5.                   No patient should be given a repeat prescription if they have not been seen within the last 6 months unless there are exceptional circumstances, as advised by the doctor.

6.                   The reception team/nurses will advise the patients of this policy and if  there is any disagreement, they will seek advice from the respective doctors. 

7.                   Repeats are available for enrolled patients only for ongoing medication.   Casual patients need an appointment for the script.

8.                   If the nurse has given the prescription to the Doctor for signing, the Doctor is to check the medication/dose/etc before signing.

9.                   Repeat prescriptions can be faxed through to the Chemist at the patient’s request.   The clinic will stamp “Faxed” on the prescription and send the original to the chemist that the faxed copy has been sent to.

10.               Patients are able to collect their prescriptions from the receptionist.   All prescriptions awaiting collection will be stored in a safe place.   In both cases (faxed/collected) the doctor/nurse can advise the patient when these will be ready for collection.

11.               Collection:   The receptionist is to ask for Photo ID prior to handing the prescription over (unless the patient is known).   If the collector is not the patient and the receptionist doubts the authenticity of the collector, they should ring the client to ascertain if the patient has authorised them to collect the prescriptions on the patient’s behalf.   If they are unable to be contacted, the receptionist should take a copy of the Photo ID and write:  Time and Date on the copy.

12.               Notify the receptionist that there is a cost to the patient involved unless specified by the doctor.

       Crawford/Cornerstone/Repeat Prescription Policy