After it was revealed that Cumbria collected nearly £3m in unused medicine, patients are being encouraged to decline medicine they do not intend to take.
Almost £3m in prescription medicine waste had to be destroyed in Cumbria after being turned in by patients who did not use them. The NHS office within the county said that 13.6 metric tonnes of rubbish last year was safely disposed of medical waste.
In the wake of the growing pile of prescription drug waste, NHS has now begun to urge patients to think before refilling an unneeded prescription or declining one prescribed that is unnecessary. According to the group, the expenditure for the unused medicine is the equivalent of 140 nurses salaries for an entire year.
Many hospitals and doctors offices request that patients return unused or unwanted prescriptions back to community pharmacies so that the proper authority can dispose of it safely through incineration. The amount accumulated last year was worth more than £2.8m and that figure only accounts for the medical waste that was turned in. Health chiefs believe that most individuals do not turn in unused prescriptions.
Dr Peter Weaving, a lead GP for NHS Cumbria, said that the figures are just the tip on the iceberg since there is likely a large amount of medical waste that is unaccounted for. He added that both patients and GPs needed to take responsibility for properly disposing of unneeded prescriptions and make an effort to reduce the amount of waste being generated.
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