Patients urged to help cut costly medicines waste

Dr Ben Riley urged people to only take the medicine they need

NHS bosses are urging people to only order the medicines they need and to return any unused to pharmacists after claims that waste costs about £300m nationally every year.

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) said it is spending about £10m a year on medicines that go unused.

Dr Ben Riley, BOB ICB's chief medical officer, urged people not to hoard packets on the off chance they might need it.

He said the huge space that would be taken up by collecting all of the unused medicines in the region is estimated to be the equivalent of about 20 shipping containers every year.

"It's costing the NHS a far bit of money to provide medicines that aren't used," he said.

"We reckon it's about £10m annually for our NHS system and that's money of course that could be used on other things like GP appointments or more nurses or operations."

Olivier Picard, who owns pharmacies in Berkshire, said the wastage needs to be cut

BOB ICB said about 640,000 litres of medicines waste was collected from community pharmacies in its area between August 2024 and July.

"If they're not disposed of properly they can get into the water supply sometimes or some of them contain greenhouse gases that can get into the atmosphere," Dr Riley added.

"We're very conscious to address that so we can protect the environment together."

Olivier Picard, who owns four pharmacies across Berkshire, said the wastage was "awful".

"NHS resources are very precious," he added.

"The amount that is spent by the NHS overall is enormous and we need our NHS.

"Unfortunately what happens here is that hundreds of millions of pounds are wasted in the country every year. That could pay for funding for pharmacies; that could pay for scanners in hospitals."