The process of getting access to a prescription medicine is about ensuring that people who have medical needs have access to the medicines they need to treat or manage any conditions they have.
The typical pathway for a prescription outside of Pharmacy First is to contact the GP or healthcare professional who made the initial prescription to ask them to provide a repeat prescription.
This can take time, however, and in some cases where a delay in receiving a prescription supply could lead to serious or life-threatening consequences, a pharmacy may be able to provide an emergency supply.
What Is An Emergency Supply?
An emergency supply is an exemption to the laws surrounding supplying prescription-only medication written into the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
The Human Medicines Regulations covered a range of subjects but they were primarily focused on the supply of prescription medicines outside of the typical pathway of a doctor prescribing and a pharmacy supplying, such as paramedics and midwives.
It also allows pharmacists to supply emergency supply of prescription medications, a power that has proven to be life-saving since the law was put into place and empowers pharmacists.
An emergency supply of medication is typically no more than a 30-day supply of a given medication, the smallest full course of treatment in cases where a prescription cannot be directly split, or a five-day supply in the case of the epilepsy drug phenobarbital.
When Can You Request An Emergency Supply?
It is at the discretion of a pharmacist whether they provide an emergency supply, but anyone who feels that they have an immediate need for their medication can ask for it.
Typically, at that point, the pharmacist will provide a mini consultation to ensure that there is an immediate need for the medication and it cannot wait until a prescription can be obtained via a GP.
As well as this, the medicine needs to have been prescribed previously. It does not necessarily have to be part of a repeat prescription for this to be the case and proves that you have had the
medicine before and it is safe for you to have it again.
Finally, the pharmacist needs to be sure that the dose requested is appropriate for the person to be given.
Pharmacists will base their decision on their training, guidance and the consideration of the consequences of not supplying the medication. Prescription medicines must be dispensed safely and responsibly to avoid potential side effects, but this must be balanced with the consequences of not having this medication.
This emergency supply can be provided by any pharmacy, so if one does not have the particular medication available, it can be provided by any pharmacy in the area which does by following the same system for requesting an emergency supply.
If it is not available at all, then a pharmacist should give advice on the next step to receiving medical care, which may include visiting the accident and emergency unit of a hospital to ensure that an urgent supply of medication is provided as soon as possible.