AS PHARMACIST Lin-Nam Wang is handed the black plastic bag her heart sinks. Inside is £2,250 but the hoard isn’t cash; it is neatly stacked medicine boxes. It is only a tiny fraction of the wasted medications handed back to UK pharmacists daily and it must be destroyed.

“It makes me despair,” she says. “We face cuts to our services and yet £300million worth of medicines are wasted every year. That’s enough for 80,906 hip operations.”

Like Lin-Nam, pharmacists up and down the country are handed back out-of-date or hoarded medicines amounting to millions in cash value. Often they are returned only when a patient has died and relatives clear out their homes.

It is thought millions more unused drugs are stored in medical cabinets around the country.

When LloydsPharmacy recently called for patients to return their unused medicines it was handed drugs dating back to the Twenties.

“When medicines are returned we don’t know how long they’ve been in a patient’s home,” says Lin-Nam.

“Even if they are unopened they have to be sent for incineration.”
It makes me despair

Lin-Nam Wang

A survey by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society found 57 per cent of pharmacists believe this high medicine waste is down to patients.

The most common causes are collecting a prescription that is no longer needed or storing up drugs prescribed on a “take as required” basis fearing they will run out.

When NHS Cumbria polled its patients on wasted medications it found one man had been stockpiling Viagra for three years and another patient continued to collect painkillers and laxatives “just in case” her illness came back.

Some patients admitted they were embarrassed in case their doctor found out they hadn’t taken their drugs properly. Others simply couldn’t be bothered to explain to their pharmacist that they no longer needed a drug. “It’s easier just to order everything on the list,” was the response of a patient when questioned on his excess ordering.
   
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Some pharmacists believe part of the problem is people don’t know the cost of their medications. A box of Viagra costs the NHS £23.50, while a box of cholesterol-lowering statins is priced at £6.16.

Lin-Nam believes telling patients how much their drugs cost will help them understand just how much money they are wasting.

“People don’t have a clue how much their medicines cost,” she says.

“Pharmacies could print some extra wording on labels. Something like, ‘this box of medicine costs the NHS £28’.”

T he Department of Health is against the idea. It argues telling people the cost could cause more problems with waste. “Research shows that putting prices on medicines can lead to people not taking them properly,” says health minister Lord Howe. “Not all medications are expensive.

“Lower prices for drugs might lead people to think the price indicates quality or the seriousness of their illness,” he adds.

The NHS has also investigated recycling medicines. Many patients think it is already happening. “It does happen in some other countries,” says Neal Patel of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

“However there is a problem with safety. We work extremely hard to keep counterfeit medicine out of circulation and reusing old medicines could open up a new avenue for unsafe drugs to enter.”

Instead the Department of Health has set up reviews where pharmacists talk to patients about their drugs and if they still need to take them.

It is also looking into how the NHS might cut the number of medicines prescribed. Many drugs for high blood pressure and cholesterol have side effects that could require medication later on.

It is also hoped simple diet and exercise changes could cut the growing list of drugs even further.