Leftover prescription meds - what to do???

damo101 · 2 July 2006 at 10:29AM

Hi,
question that is not strictly money saving for me, but could be for others down the road.

I know someone that has a load of medication left over from cancer treatment - private medical insurance paid for it all but it was priced at about £8k worth of stuff. Rather than chucking it or giving it back to the pharmacy (to destroy or resell) - ois there somewhere that all of this stuff can be sent to so that someone who can't afford the medication can have it? Obviously can't just give it to anyone but is there an organisation that would take these med's and make sure they get safely distributed?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Damo

Poppy9 · 2 July 2006 at 10:32AM

I don't think anyone can take it as they can be 100% sure it's not been tampered with. Speak to your GP.

I know when I was prescribed the then new Gaviston tablets years ago I had boxes of them (I was pregnant). One tablet convinced me that I couldn't take them and preferred the liquid. The pharmacy said they couldn't take them back except to destroy. Next time I saw my GP he took them off my hands and said he would use them as samples for people to try before prescribing. Don't know if he was allowed to do this, perhaps he kept for personal use!

damo101 · 2 July 2006 at 10:36AM

Thanks for the reply.

The majority of the med's haven't been opened - they were given "just in case" - they're mainly pain medication and anti sickness tablets, syringes, liquids that thankfully were not needed.

poppy_f1 · 2 July 2006 at 11:01PM

when my dad died of cancer we were left with loads of medication, tried giving it to the hospital to destroy they wouldnt take it, tried to take it back to the pharmacy they didnt want to take it
in the end we flushed it down the loo

Nicki · 3 July 2006 at 12:01AM

I had lots of meds left over from fertility treatment, which we had bought privately, and when we were lucky enough to conceive the consultant took back what was left to give to NHS patients who could not afford to buy them. He offered to buy them off us, but we wanted them to go to someone who might not otherwise be able to pay for them. Perhaps your friend's oncologist might do something similar?

Sam_26 · 13 July 2006 at 8:55AM

It can be found illegal for you to deal in Prescription Only Medicines when you are not the practitioner. The MHRA would take a dim view of this.

The reason the tablets/equipment cannot be reused, if that the storage cannot be guaranteed. eg In these hot temperatures, can you guarantee the meds have been kept below 25 C.

My advice is return to your local pharmacy!

Ted_Hutchinson · 13 July 2006 at 11:19AM

I should keep asking around. I changed from having an indwelling catheter to self-catherisation last year and therefore had a supply of bags spares etc which were all new unopened and it seemed gross to just bin them.

Fortunately I found a nurse who had contacts in Africa who was pleased to take them off me and assured me they would on there way to an African hospital very soon. However I think it may have been an off the record arrangement, but I still think we shouldn't be wasting what could be a valuable much needed resource.

Westywoodpecker · 13 July 2006 at 12:00PM

We also send out of date equipment and medical dressings etc to Africa but controlled drugs such as morphine, fentanyl and pethidine are not allowed. I recently had a lot of fentanyl tabs and patches left over when my dad changed to oxycontin for pain control, so I took them to Boots in the end.

pollocmc · 14 July 2006 at 2:41PM

Do not flush them down the toilet!

Take them to the pharmacy - yes they will be destroyed most likely but you could be in a lot of bother if you start handing them out to folk and are found out.

Tiff_2 · 16 July 2006 at 10:19PM

Don't know how but how about Medecin Sans Frontiers who give medical help unbiased. Or the Red Cross or Oxfam? Bound to have websites. Think you'll be told that the safest thing is to return them to pharmacist as they are dangerous drugs.

Katykat · 18 July 2006 at 6:45PM

I cringed when I read about flushing medicines down the toilet. I know it doesn't sound nice but everything that goes down the pan is recycled. Some medicines are not degradable and will end up in the water system at some point ( the contraceptive pill is a known example- the hormones are excreted in female urine, to return to the water system, many males now have higher than normal female hormones.) Please dont FLUSH medicines. It's true, there are organaisations that redistribute to under developed countries. As a nurse in a surgery, we regularly had someone collecting them, but new regulations brought in following the SHIPMAN enquiry means we have to dispose of them legally. So now the help agencies have difficulty obtaining supplies. However, private citizens are not bound by these regulations, so my advice would be to contact one of these agencies and ask.

Leftover prescription meds - what to do???

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