Disposal Of Unwanted Medicines
If you have unused/expired prescription medicines or medicines that you bought over the
counter, just bring them to the pharmacy for safe disposal. This is a free service available to
the public. It is not safe to put unwanted/expired medicine in domestic bins.This service is
available at our pharmacy. Please ask in store for more information.
Stockpiling of medicines
Any medicine you return to the pharmacy cannot be used by the pharmacy again. It’s
therefore very important that you don’t stockpile medication at home and only request
medication that you need. Stockpiling is also dangerous as there is a possibility of mixing
your new medicines with your old ones and it is also a safety risk to children and others who
might take them. Every year over £300 million of NHS money is wasted by unused
prescription medicines
Safe disposal of medicines
Each year, large quantities of unused and expired medications are dumped into bins or
flushed down toilets and sinks. The effects on the environment and human health are unclear
but the evidence is pointing to the presence of chemicals from prescription and over-thecounter medications in the soil, drinking water and the surrounding environment. It is very
important that you return unwanted medicines to a local pharmacy for safe disposal.
How to bring medicines back to Rotherchem.
In the first place, it is best you return your medicines to the pharmacy that dispensed them.
This way you can discuss with the pharmacist on the best way to reduce the amount of
returned medicines, this will help to reduce the burden of wasted medication on the NHS.
Please ask your pharmacist about electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) for a more efficient
way to manage your repeat prescriptions.
At Rotherchem, please only bring the actual medicines back and remove all patient
identifiable material such as labels. The NHS is planning to reduce the carbon footprint, so
please recycle all the outer paper/cardboard packaging at home.From time to time, when a
loved passes away, we understand that there may be a large amount of tablets to return.
Please call our pharmacist to discuss the best way that this can be managed.We would like
patients to highlight controlled drugs (CDs) such as morphine injections to us and we do not
accept back any needles, catheters, dressings or any plastic materials.
