Prescriptions and Dispensary

If you need to speak to a dispenser, phone: 01395 232509 between 2pm to 4:30pm and press option 2.

If you are housebound and would like a community volunteer to collect your prescription for you, please call The Friends of Woodbury Surgery on 07546347311.

Leave a message with your name and contact number and they will get back to you.

Any patient registered at Woodbury Surgery who lives more than 1 mile from a community pharmacy may obtain all their medication from the dispensary. Temporary residents can also use the services of the dispensary. To check eligibility please ask.

Department of Health regulations do not permit us to dispense to patients who live less than a mile from a community pharmacy, in this case your prescription will be sent electronically to a pharmacy of your choice.

We do not dispense medication to any patients registered on the out of area scheme.

Convenience:

One-stop healthcare, collect your medication before you leave the surgery.

Safety:

The dispensary uses the same clinical IT systems as our GPs. Prescriptions made by a GP can be accurately and immediately viewed in your medical record by our dispensers, who can also immediately alert the prescriber to any problems with medicine supply or raise any queries quickly.

Keep our small village surgery alive:

Every time you use our dispensary you generate income for the practice. Profits are small, but they are reinvested back into the practice to provide you with outstanding health care. Sadly in recent years many hundreds of small communities have lost their GP surgeries. 

Support the dispensary, and you can stop this from happening in Woodbury.

Medication that is required on a regular basis will be added to a repeat prescription so that you can obtain it without seeing a doctor each time you need it.

We supply 28 days of repeat medications. This is in line with government guidance as it reduces waste, and keeps the amount of medication stored at home and in the dispensary to a minimum.

Please allow us 1 full working week (5 working days) to process your prescription request.

• Check which medicines you have at home before re-ordering your prescription.
• If you don’t need the medicine, don’t order it.
• If you need the medicine in the future you can still request it.
• This includes medicines that are prescribed to be used as and when required

We do not accept repeat prescription requests over the phone.

We understand you may have to ask someone to collect medication on your behalf for a variety of reasons. 

We ask where possible and appropriate for you to provide the following information:

• Are they collecting your regular monthly medication or a prescription following a recent consultation with a doctor?
  • Why are we asking? The dispensary team process and prepare hundreds of prescriptions per day and as a team are not always aware of prescriptions pending. 
• If we arrange your monthly medication collection we need to know what you will need for the following month. 
  • Why can't we request everything on repeat? This helps to avoid over ordering, stock piling and destroying unused medication. 
• Are they paying for your prescription? - You may have to pay for your presciptions, or have paid for a prepayment certificate. You may have an exemption from being medicaly exempt to receiveing universal credits. For a full list of exemptions please view here.
  • Why must we know? - Completing the back of the prescriptions accurately is very important as you could recieve an expensive fine of £100.

You can note these details on paper and into a sealed envelope to ask your helpful relative, friend, neighbour or support worker etc to pass to the dispensary team to action for you.

If you find yourself without medication when the surgery is closed and you need it urgently there are 2 options:

• Call 111 who can arrange a prescription to be sent electronically to a community pharmacy
• Take your repeat medication slip to a community pharmacy and they may be able to give you an emergency supply at cost price.

If you have a problem with your medication or the dispensary please speak to one of our dispensers or your GP in the first instance. We can usually resolve any issues quickly.

If your concern cannot be resolved, or you feel that you need to make a complaint please ask to speak to one of the GP Partners or the Practice Manager.

Compliments and positive feedback are welcome too!

You can order in person by returning the right-hand half of a previous prescription for the required medications.

Or, you can submit a handwritten request. You may also write out an order for someone else. You must include the patient's name, date of birth and requested medication.