Does it matter if you lose your prescription?

BogMonkey

When a doctor writes you a prescription, does it go into a centralised database that all the pharmacies can access? In other words, if you lose your prescription, can you just go into the pharmacy and give them your medical card and tell them you lost the prescription? My doctors won't be working for the next couple of days and I don't know his phone number. Can I just go to the pharmacy and tell them to check the computer (assuming this database actually exists) or do I have to wait until the doctors back so I can get him to write another one?

Kurtosis

No such database exists unfortunately. In order for a pharmacy to dispense medicines they would need the original physical prescription. If you attend a pharmacy regularly they may, depending on the nature of the medicine, be able to accommodate you until you can get a new prescription. I would suggest contacting your doctor's surgery and your regular pharmacy to see what they can do.

UL_heart_throb

BogMonkey wrote: »

When a doctor writes you a prescription, does it go into a centralised database that all the pharmacies can access? In other words, if you lose your prescription, can you just go into the pharmacy and give them your medical card and tell them you lost the prescription? My doctors won't be working for the next couple of days and I don't know his phone number. Can I just go to the pharmacy and tell them to check the computer (assuming this database actually exists) or do I have to wait until the doctors back so I can get him to write another one?

All your doctors going on holiday together? No locum taking their place. Ring the practice, ask for a repeat prescription. If it's for a drug that can be sold on the street (e.g. benzos) it might be quite difficult but if it's an antibiotic they'll probably write you a new one out straight away, it should be in your record that you were prescribed what ever it is.

locum-motion

BogMonkey wrote: »

When a doctor writes you a prescription, does it go into a centralised database that all the pharmacies can access?

No. It goes into their own computer that only they can access.

BogMonkey wrote: »

In other words, if you lose your prescription, can you just go into the pharmacy and give them your medical card and tell them you lost the prescription?

If you have a medical card, then the pharmacy absolutely cannot be paid for supplying anything to you unless they receive the corresponding prescription. You might have noticed that the prescription is in duplicate. The top copy, effectively, becomes the bill that the pharmacy sends to the Govt so that they can get paid. The bottom copy is kept for their own records.

BogMonkey wrote: »

My doctors won't be working for the next couple of days and I don't know his phone number.

As someone else pointed out, it's highly unlikely that your GP's entire practice has closed down completely 'for the next couple of days'. It's Monday. There should be somebody there. *

BogMonkey wrote: »

Can I just go to the pharmacy and tell them to check the computer (assuming this database actually exists) or do I have to wait until the doctors back so I can get him to write another one?

There is a provision in the law that allows the pharmacy to supply medications without a prescription in certain emergency situations. "My doctor isn't working today" is not an emergency, as there are many other doctors other than your own one - you would be expected to obtain a prescription either from another doctor in the same practice/a locum doctor standing in/a doctor who works in the Out-Of-Hours service etc.

Basically - if you haven't done so already - you need to talk to your regular pharmacy and/or your doctor's practice.


*: I suppose what I really mean is: "It's Monday. There should have been someone there this afternoon"
(There's probably no one there now, at 19:30.)

RobFowl

It's a bit off topic but do you notice how lost prescriptions are almost invariably for Benzo's, sleepers or codeine based pain killers :rolleyes:
I yet to see a script for a statin lost !

sam34

lads, ease off on the OP. he's asking a straightforward question.