Why Did the Doctor Not Issue my Prescription?

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Sometimes the GP will not issue a request for a prescription and will ask you to arrange a telephone or face-to-face consultation instead - or to send us further information.

Common reasons include:

• You have requested a medication that has never been given to you before by this surgery
• You have requested your repeat prescription too soon (the GP might be concerned that you are taking your tablets too often and that they are running out early)
• You have requested an item which is not usually given as a repeat prescription (such as antibiotics or steroid creams)
• You have not been seen by the GP or nurse for a while and you need to have routine monitoring and health checks before we can safely issue your prescription. Common reasons are listed below. If you are able to send us the appropriate information - or arrange for a blood test or nurse appointment - in good time, it will reduce delays in issuing your prescription:
  • Patient who are taking Warfarin have not provided us with their INR readings from their anticoagulation clinic appointments
  • Patients taking Levothyroxine have not had their thyroid function tests done for over a year
  • Patients on blood pressure lowering medication have not their blood pressure checked or blood tests  to monitor their kidney function and overall cardiovascular risk done for over a year
  • Patients with diabetes who have not had monitoring blood tests done for a while (generally twice a year minimum) or have not had their annual physical health check
  • Women taking the Combined Oral Contraceptive pill who have no provided us with an update of their weight, blood pressure, smoking status or any other changes in their health for over a year
  • Patients on cytotoxic medication (common examples are Methotrexate, Azathioprine) who have not provided us with copies of monitoring blood tests done by their hospital clinic
  • Patients with a respiratory condition (most commonly asthma or COPD) who have not had a review appointment in the past year
• You gave us a handwritten prescription from a hospital which you were supposed to take to the hospital pharmacy

Please note that all of the clinical reasons above are unanimously agreed by all of the GPs at the surgery. If your prescription was not issued, this would have been for a clinical reason and would have been decided by a doctor. Decisions about whether prescriptions are issued, or not, are not made by members of our reception or admin team - only by the GPs.