We are a dispensing practice which means we can dispense to our patients who live more than one mile from their nearest pharmacy. If you are a dispensing patient, you can collect directly from us. The dispensary hatch is just inside the lobby to your left as you come in. if you are a pharmacy patient, most prescriptions are sent electronically to your nominated pharmacy. You can nominate your preferred pharmacy, or change it, on the NHS App. 

Most of our non-dispensing patients use Lambourn Pharmacy in the village, but there is the option to use an alternative pharmacy or online. 

Please read the patient information leaflet included in the medication packet carefully. It may answer your queries. The next step is to speak to your local pharmacist.

We are happy to help if you have further queries or concerns that the leaflet or pharmacist cannot answer.

This new medicine will have been given to you on a short-term (“acute”) basis. The prescribing clinician will tell you when they want to review how it is working. This will be a few weeks later so the medicine has time to take effect.

So before getting any more of this new medicine, you must speak to a clinician, and preferably the one who prescribed it for you. This is called a Medication Review & is important to assess if the medicine has been making you feel better.

This can be done on the telephone and is a routine matter. Please complete the medication review online form 10 days before you finish your new medicine.  We will then be in touch to book a routine telephone call ideally with the doctor who prescribed it for you.  

At the appointment, you will discuss with the clinician how you have felt while taking the new medicine. If the medicine has not been making you feel better the clinician may suggest changing the amount, or an alternative.

Or, if the medicine has been working then the clinician may make it a “Repeat” medicine.

This is a medicine you have been taking long enough for you, & the clinician who prescribed it for you, to know it is making you feel better. The clinician then marks it as a repeat medicine on your electronic record so you can get more without needing an appointment. The usual supply is 1 month as per local policy to meet medicines safety guidelines. Controlled Drugs have to be very carefully monitored and as such are not added to repeat medications. 

An annual “medication review” is required each year to ensure your medications continue to be safe and effective. This may be in person or by telephone. The clinician, who will then “reauthorise” your medications for the year ahead. If repeat medications have not had the annual “authorisation”, they can no longer be ordered routinely by the patient.

Please order your repeat medication one week before your supply runs out. Our preference is for you to order via the NHS App (from apps stores) or Systmonline (please speak to staff). Otherwise, you can complete the repeat slip and drop into the Lambourn Pharmacy or in the post-box outside the surgery. We cannot accept requests by phone call.

If you have heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, asthma or lung disease (COPD) we ask you to attend an annual “Birthday Month” review with our nursing team. This review is important because it is part of your annual medication review.

After this Birthday Month appointment with the nursing team, the nurse will ask a prescribing clinician to do your medication review and “reauthorise” your repeat medications for the year ahead. If the clinician needs to speak with you, we will book an appointment when you are with the nurse. However, the clinician may be able to do your medication review, and reauthorise your medications, using the information from your Birthday Month appointment.

Failure to attend for your birthday month review with the nurse may lead to your repeat medications being postponed or quantities reduced. Only repeat medications that have had the annual “authorisation” can be ordered routinely by the patient.

People with long-term conditions not listed above, or on long term medication for other reasons, can see their Medication Review due dates on their prescription & in the NHS App. Please book a Medication Review appointment annually, even if you are feeling well & settled on your medication. Contact us via the online form at least 10 days before your medication runs out, to arrange your medication review. If we are unable to find an appointment in that timescale, we can normally issue one month to tide you over until the appointment can be made. 

You may be booked with a clinical pharmacist, with a doctor or other prescribing clinician.

At the appointment, you will discuss with the clinician how you have been feeling, and any other medication issues. If the medicine has not been making you feel better, or if things have changed, then the clinician may suggest changing the dose, or an alternative.

It is not always appropriate to put a medicine on repeat prescription. This may occur:

• If the medicine is a short course for short term problem
• Medicines that are changing or not stable
• When a Medication Review is needed or overdue
• Controlled Drugs
• Poor compliance

Ordering via the NHS App is safest & is easiest. We process hundreds of repeat prescription requests daily: each needs care and attention and the process to be efficient and safe. There are many apps available to use when requesting your medication. At Lambourn surgery we recommend the NHS App or Systm Online. Both apps treat medication reviews slightly differently. If your repeat medication is not showing as available to order, or “on hold subject to review” then please complete the online medication review form on the website or contact the surgery to book a review. 

you have requested your medication it will show as issued on the app. This means the request has been sent. Please wait 3 working days from placing the order before you collect, to allow time for your request to be authorised and processed. 

Repeat prescriptions take 3 working days to process:

• Requested: Monday before 11am    
• Ready to collect: Thursday after 4pm
• Requested: Tuesday before 11am    
• Ready to collect: Friday after 4pm

Please order via NHS App or Systm online. We do not take ‘phone requests.

Please plan ahead so you do not run out of medicine. Order more when you still have one week’s supply left. We issue hundreds of repeat prescriptions every day, & each needs care and attention, they cannot be done in a hurry.

We have a short list of medicines that can be issued at short notice because harm will be caused, they are stopped. If your medicine does not appear on our list, then we are not able to issue it at short notice unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The surgery dispensary hatch is open between 10am and 12.30pm and again between 2.30pm and 6pm. The counter is closed outside of those times to allow the team to prepare medication in a safe uninterrupted environment. If you have been to see the doctor and have been issued a prescription for immediate use, this can be collected while you are here during normal surgery working hours.