A NEW campaign has been launched in a bid to stop the estimated £3 million a year cost of wasted medication to NHS Dorset.

Thousands of posters and leaflets will be distributed to GP surgeries and pharmacies and inserts will be placed in prescription bags in pharmacies.

One of the main focuses of the campaign is on repeat prescriptions that are ordered and collected, but not needed because the patient has stopped using the drug. Once medicines have been prescribed, they cannot be recycled and have to be thrown away – whether or not they have been used.

Patients are being encouraged to have a regular medicine review with their pharmacist or doctor. The campaign will also focus on the dangers of having unused medicines lying around at home, especially when there are young children around.

Katherine Gough, head of medicines management with NHS Dorset, said: “Unwanted drugs in the home may mean that patients are not getting the benefit they could be from their medicines. It also represents a large amount of waste.

“Wasted medicines means wasted money, and if we could save some of that money, we could reinvest it in other areas of healthcare to benefit the local community.”

Anyone with unused medicines at home is urged to take them back to the pharmacy for safe disposal.

The Department of Health estimates up to £800m worth of drugs are wasted nationally in primary care each year.