Extent of uncollected prescriptions in general practice

Abstract

BackgroundA small number of prescriptions ordered by the patient from their general practice remain uncollected and hence undispensed. No research has been published on this phenomenon and on how this is managed. We aimed to evaluate this in one primary care trust.AimTo find out what prescription items are not collected, and why.Design of studyA descriptive cross-sectional analysis of prescription data. Semi-structured interviews with 21 primary health care team members, and 10 patients who had apparently not collected their prescription. Fifty-seven patients from the lead author’s practice were telephoned and gave their comments.SettingTwenty general practices in the Gateshead Primary Care Trust.MethodNineteen practices provided suitable data for analysis from one month’s uncollected prescriptions plus total items issued during the same period of time. All suitable patients who had uncollected prescriptions from 10 practices were invited to participate in a telephone interview. Similar patients from the lead author’s practice were telephoned and invited to comment.ResultsOn average 0.5% items were uncollected. Drugs for a specific diagnosis (eg, cardiovascular drugs) were significantly less likely to be uncollected than drugs prescribed either symptomatically or for a presumptive diagnosis (0.48% versus 0.67% uncollected, respectively, P < 0.001). Many uncollected prescriptions were due to administrative causes: few resulted from patient error or forgetfulness. The majority of patients reported obtaining their medication. No adverse events arising from uncollected prescriptions were reported.ConclusionUncollected prescriptions are a small proportion (0.5%) of the total issued and were more likely to be for non-essential items; therefore the policy of destroying uncollected prescriptions after an appropriate period without any further action is probably safe.