£35m cost of wasted drugs
Pharmacist Sue Marsh and dispensary assistant Kath Stanford survey some of the piles of medication which are going to waste in Dudley Borough.
Wasted medication is costing the West Midlands health service £35 million, it has been revealed.
The figure emerged as GPs and pharmacy bosses in Dudley teamed up to launch a new campaign to reduce the £2 million that is going to waste across the borough.
Health bosses say the cash wasted annually in Dudley could pay for 400 hip replacements, 280 heart by-pass operations, 2,800 cataract operations, 60 community nurses or 360 more knee replacements.
They are asking patients to consider carefully which medicines they really need for their next repeat prescription.
People with repeat prescriptions will be reminded to only order what they need, as medicines that have been dispensed cannot be recycled and have to be destroyed.
Patients are also being encouraged to have regular reviews of their medicines while medicines that are not required regularly will not be removed from patients' repeat prescriptions without consulting them.
Alison Tennant, Specialist in Pharmaceutical Public Health for Dudley PCT, says: "We are constantly looking at ways to deliver better and more effective patient care."
Posters will be displayed on buses and bus shelters across the West Midlands and thousands of posters and leaflets will also be distributed to GP surgeries and pharmacies.