Pharmacy Voice is encouraging all community pharmacies in England to take part in a practice-based audit on repeat medication services and medicines waste. The audit is designed to explore the different types of pharmacy medication services and assess their value to ongoing patient care.

Pharmacy Voice is hoping that the audit will determine whether current repeat medication systems prevent patients receiving prescription items that they no longer need or whether they need to be reviewed and improved to make them safer and more efficient.

Elizabeth Wade, director of policy at Pharmacy Voice, commented: “As the whole healthcare system strives to improve both efficiency and patient experience, it is vital that community pharmacy teams review opportunities to make processes for handling repeat medication supplies even more safe and lean.”

Community pharmacy teams can take part in the audit over any one-week period between 1 August and 30 November 2016.