Prescriptions

Order repeat prescriptions via the NHS App or NHS website, and have them sent to a pharmacy of your choice.

Learn more about the NHS App

The easiest way to order your prescription is by using our online services.

Learn more about online services

Pharmacy Ordering / Collection Service

Pharmacies offer a prescription collection service from our Practice

Your pharmacy can also order your medication on your behalf. This saves you time and unnecessary visits to the Practice. Please contact the Pharmacy of your choice for more information if you wish to use this service.

About pharmacists

As qualified healthcare professionals, pharmacists can offer advice on minor illnesses such as:

• coughs
• colds
• sore throats
• tummy trouble
• aches and pains

They can also advise on medicine that you can buy without a prescription.

Find a pharmacy

• Hand your repeat slip into the pharmacy, the pharmacy holds onto the right-hand side of the prescription and requests your repeat medication on your behalf. Remember to tell the pharmacy, every cycle, what you do and don’t need them to order
• Hand in the tick list, found on the right-hand side of your previous repeat prescription, to the pharmacy or at the practice

If you need a medication that is not on your repeat prescription list, please contact us online. This allows us to review your request safely, we aim to respond withing 72 hours.

If you are unable to contact us online, you can call us on 01727 851 589 and a member of our team will pass your query on to the GP or Clinical Pharmacist.

Requests for these items should be placed either through your NHS account, or by completing a request form at the surgery. You may receive a questionnaire to complete via text should we require some up to date information about your health.

Prescriptions for patients 65 and older and 18 and younger will be issued for 28 days.

• if you have nominated a preferred pharmacy, then the prescription will be sent electronically directly to the pharmacy. This is the fastest way to get a prescription. This is how the practice would prefer you to collect repeats if possible
• if you haven’t nominated a preferred pharmacy, then your prescription will be ready for collection from reception by yourself or your carer

Electronic prescriptions will not be issued for controlled drugs or on occasions when we need you to collect extra forms or correspondence relating to your medication.

You can change your nominated pharmacy at any time:

• on the app or website where you order repeat prescriptions
• at any pharmacy that accepts repeat prescriptions

Please do not send through a request for a repeat prescription until a week before the new prescription is due. This increases the potential for the prescription to be overlooked and not re-issued on time.

• Any requests for repeat prescriptions that are requested early will not be processed by the practice until one week before the next repeat prescription is due.
• If an early request is received from a pharmacy, it will be returned to the pharmacy.
• If it is received through Patient Online Access, it will not be done and will remain on the system until a week before it is due.

• Repeat prescriptions cannot be issued early by anyone except a GP. The GP will only issue an early prescription in an exceptional circumstance (travel, theft, damage, etc.)
• If you are putting in an early request because of exceptional circumstances, then you need to write a brief note explaining why you need your medication early.
• However, issuing the repeat prescription early is at the doctor’s discretion and they may need to call you to confirm the details or wish to see you for a face to face consultation first.

If your prescription is not ready at the pharmacy you have nominated after two working days of ordering it or it has not been printed and left at reception for you, it may be because:

• You are due an annual review or blood test. This can sometimes involve a phone call from our prescriptions team, the doctor or the reception team, who may need to book you an appointment.
• You need to have a face to face consultation as the problem for which the item was prescribed needs to be examined again or requires further investigations.

It is the doctors’ duty to ensure that you and your medication are monitored and reviewed. This is not negotiable.

If you have run out of your prescribed medication and need it urgently there are several ways to get an emergency supply, including via out-of-hour services.

You can find more information on the NHS website

At Parkbury House Surgery, we will not prescribe diazepam for patients who wish to use this for a fear of flying or for phobias in relation to medical and dental procedures. We have made this decision due to the following reasons:

• Diazepam is a sedative. This means, the medication makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there were to be an emergency during the flight, this could impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions or react to the situation. This could seriously affect the safety of you and the people around you.
• Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however, when you sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means, your movements during sleep are reduced and this can place you at an increased risk of developing blood clots (DVT). These blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk further increases if your flight is over 4 hours long.
• Although most people respond to benzodiazepines like diazepam with sedation, a small proportion experience the opposite effect and can become aggressive. They can also lead to disinhibition and make you behave in ways you normally wouldn’t. This could also impact on your safety and the safety of your fellow passengers or could lead you to get in trouble with the law.
• National prescribing guidelines followed by doctors also don’t allow the use of benzodiazepines in cases or phobia. Any doctor prescribing diazepam for a fear of flying would be taking a significant legal risk as this goes against these guidelines. Benzodiazepines are only licensed for short-term use in a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the problem you suffer with, you should seek proper care and support for your mental health, and it would not be advisable to go on a flight.
• In several countries, diazepam and similar drugs are illegal. They would be confiscated, and you might find yourself in trouble with the police for being in control of an illegal substance.
• Diazepam has a long half-life. This means it stays in your system for a significant time and you may fail random drug testing if you are subjected to such testing as is required in some jobs.

We appreciate a fear of flying is very real and very frightening and can be debilitating. However, there are much better and effective ways of tackling the problem. We recommend you tackle your problem with a fear of flying course, which is run by several airlines. These courses are far more effective than diazepam, they have none of the undesirable effects and the positive effects of the courses continue after the courses have been completed.

Fear of flying courses

• Easy Jet 
• British Airways 
• Virgin Atlantic

Please see the guidance below outlining the rules on travelling with medication and when to contact us.