NHS Tayside has urged people to make sure they are taking the prescriptions they need after it emerged that £1.4 million worth of returned medicine is wasted.
And the figure, according to a leading pharmacist, could be a lot higher if it included stockpiled items or thrown-out prescriptions.
A campaign, called Let’s Talk Medicines, has been launched in a bid to encourage people on repeat prescriptions to look at medicines they take and speak to their pharmacist or GP about any concerns.
They’re also being urged to only order the medication they need.
The over-ordering of prescriptions is particularly prevalent around Christmas time, as people worry about pharmacies being closed.
However, David Coulson, associate director of pharmacy for NHS Tayside, said pharmacies were only closed for two days at Christmas and two at New Year and “stocking up” was unnecessary.
He said: “People seem to panic at this time of the year but it’s unnecessary and really does drive waste and cost. We see a huge spike in the number of prescriptions every December which we want to get rid of. A lot of people forget that in Scotland, although prescriptions cost the public nothing, medication does cost NHS Tayside a lot of money.
“Audit Scotland has put a figure of £1.4m on the amount of waste with returned medication every year in Tayside — but that’s only returned medication.
“I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess, but for every person you have who has returned a prescription they don’t need, there could easily be 10 times that number who have either kept an unused prescription in a cupboard or flushed it down the toilet.
“When you’re ordering your prescription, please think, ‘do I need that medication?’. If not, tell your community pharmacist or doctor. This will allow a medication review.
“Being open and honest with medical staff and telling them you don’t need medication any more will help reduce wastage.”
Mr Coulson said people often carried on ordering medication out of habit to comply with what their doctor previously prescribed them — even if they don’t need it.
He said: “As we have an ageing population with more complex conditions, that increases the amount of medication that we need.
“There are an estimated 14,000 people who are on more than 10 types of medication in Tayside. The question is, ‘how much waste is there in that system?’ People should see if they need a medication review. It might be they don’t need their prescription, it could be some other form of treatment, like physiotherapy or some other form of social prescribing. We are urging people to ask their pharmacists what their options are.
“NHS Tayside spends £80m a year on prescriptions in primary care. We need to know we are getting the best value for prescriptions out of that. Any money that is wasted could obviously be used elsewhere.”
NHS Tayside is keen to highlight how the money wasted each year could be used. The £1.4m spent on returned medication could pay for 449 hip operations. The amount is the same cost as treatments for 355 cancer patients.
The money could also pay for 671 days of care in an intesive care unit.