Prescription drugs
Waste prescriptions cost NHS Herefordshire £1 million a year
Patients in Herefordshire are being urged to cancel unnecessary repeat prescriptions which cost the NHS at least £1m a year.
The county's primary care trust said returned pills and creams have to be incinerated as they cannot be reused.
The trust said £1m could fund 140 heart bypass operations or 30 more community nurses.
It is urging hospital patients to bring prescribed drugs with them to cut down on waste.
Sue Hickman, a pharmacist with the trust, told BBC Hereford & Worcester: "That £1m could be used to buy more useful things rather than just burning it.
"I think some people don't appreciate that medicines do have a value and think that because it is free it doesn't matter, they'll have some more just in case.
"They don't worry about the fact there is a cost attached to them."
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Subject: NHS Herefordshire plea to patients to use prescriptions 
Fri Nov 04, 2011 4:29 am
