Telephone prescription ordering service

Overview

A small number of GP Practices in Sheffield currently have a telephone prescription ordering service run by a trained team of NHS staff. It is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm, and allows patients to call and order their repeat medication.

With the patient’s consent, the staff look at the patient’s medication record, take a list of the medicines needed, and send the request for the prescription to the doctor electronically. The patient’s doctor issues the prescription and it is made ready for collection within 2 working days or dispensing by the patient’s pharmacy of choice within 4 working days as normal.

The prescription order line is one of a number of ways that patients can order their medicines from their doctor. The service has its own dedicated telephone number which patients use instead of their GP practice's number to order their medicines.

Why we are consulting

NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group are considering making this service available to all doctors’ surgeries and their patients in Sheffield and would like to hear from all patients about this.

What happens next

All responses will be analysed and presented to NHS Sheffield Clinicial Commissioning Group's Primary Care Commissioning Committee on 19 November for a decision on whether to commission a city-wide telephone ordering service.