Throughout April, Lincolnshire’s Beechfield Medical Centre’s Patient Participation Group (PPG) organised a ‘Medication Amnesty’ to encourage and promote the safe disposal of unused, out of date or unwanted medications. The response received from their patients was extraordinary and they collected over £3000 worth of unused medication.

This highlights the overriding issue that patients are overordering items, stockpiling or not taking their medications as prescribed – all of which can be dangerous and have serious consequences. Medications are prescribed for specific medical reasons and if taken incorrectly could cause further health complications. Overordering of medications costs the NHS millions of pounds each year and puts a strain upon manufacturers. This can lead to shortages of medications further down the line.

The main message of this promotion was to encourage the public to return unused medication to their local pharmacy for safe disposal, as well as notifying their GP of any items on their repeat list that are no longer needed.

For more information about Beechfield’s Patient Participation Group, please visit Beechfield – Patient Participation Group (beechfieldppg.co.uk).