Many people have either one or several long-term conditions which require repeat prescriptions. The NHS Electronic Repeat Dispensing Service (eRD) is a free service for patients that simplifies the repeat prescribing process.
Your doctor or clinical prescriber can authorise a batch of repeat prescriptions for up to 12 months, to be collected from the pharmacy of your choice.
This means that the patient
- has no need to contact the surgery to reorder at regular intervals, unless their condition changes
- retains regular contact with their dispensing pharmacy, which is responsible for checking the patient’s circumstances haven’t changed since their previous prescription was collected.
Each time you collect your medicines from your nominated pharmacy, you will be asked four questions:
- Have you seen any health professional since your last repeat prescription was supplied?
- Have you recently started taking any new medicines, either on prescription or that you have bought over the counter or on the internet?
- Have you been having any problems with your medication or experiencing any side effects?
- Are there any items of your repeat prescription that you don’t need this month?
The eRD system means that you or your pharmacist will not need to order the medication from St Mary’s Surgery until all the batches have been used up. Usually this will tie in with the annual review of your long-term conditions and medication.
Patients can also change their nominated dispensing pharmacy at any time, and can request the next issue early or obtain more than one prescription, for example when going away on holiday.
You can register for this service through SystmOnline. St Mary’s Surgery will advise you if you are not suitable for this service.
Updated: 22.7.22