WASTED medicines could be costing the county NHS more than £4.6 million a year.
The figure is the total value of over-prescribed and over-ordered medication that is returned to pharmacists to be destroyed.
But even more than that could be lying unused in people’s cupboards.
Mukesh Lad, chairman of Pharmacy Northamptonshire, said, “People are often shocked when they hear the figure and it is money that could be spent on other services for the benefit of our patients.
“Estimates suggest that the actual waste figure is considerably higher than this, so there is a lot of work to be done.”
More than 100 healthcare professionals from across Northamptonshire attended a conference to discuss reduce medicines wastage across the county.
The conference was hosted by the GP groups NHS Nene and NHS Corby and speakers and discussed improvments to both prescribing and repeat re-order systems.
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