Repeat Prescribing Toolkit

This resource was commissioned by NHS England to address recommendation 7 of the National Overprescribing Review, which tasked the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to develop a toolkit to help practices improve the consistency of repeat prescribing processes and support this with training resources.

The development of the Repeat Prescribing Toolkit was made possible through collaboration with a diverse group including GPs, practice pharmacists, practice managers, reception staff, community pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and patients. This partnership has resulted in a valuable resource that emphasises patient safety and active patient involvement in managing their medicines.

We recognise that primary care teams continue to face many challenges, including increasing demand, frequent medicine shortages and workload pressures. This toolkit helps practices to reassess current processes to streamline systems and services for patients.

Millions of patients in England receive their medicines through repeat prescriptions, ensuring they have access to the medications they need safely and on time. However, findings from the National Overprescribing Review, along with patient feedback, highlight concerns about the lack of regular reviews for some users of long-term medicines. In some cases, patients have been exposed to harm due to inadequate monitoring or review of repeat prescriptions.

This Toolkit is the first national good practice guidance on repeat prescribing in 20 years. We welcome the collaboration between the RPS and RCGP to create this important resource.

We encourage all GP practices to work together with their local community pharmacies and to consider if their repeat prescribing systems can be improved in terms of efficiency, safety and patient care. This Toolkit provides a framework to achieve those changes.

Dr Michael Mulholland
Honorary Secretary, RCGP

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