Ordering Repeat Medication

The practice deals with and processes over 300,000 repeat prescriptions a year (2023 figure) and has over 20,000 patients registered. Due to the high numbers of both prescriptions processed and patients seeking assistance, we cannot take repeat medication orders over the telephone. 

This is for a number of reasons.  Firstly, our reception team are not trained in processing prescriptions or for dealing with medication queries so this is not safe for them to process and finally, patients calling in to submit repeat medication orders would dramatically increase the number of calls coming into the practice, therefore increasing the waiting times on the phone lines for patient who are looking for medical assistance.  

Further to the above, we also cannot accept repeat medication orders via eConsult.  If you submit an eConsult to us requesting repeat medication, this will be rejected and you will receive a message back asking you to order in another way.

Due to these issues, we kindly ask that you submit repeat medication orders to us in one of the following ways: 

Using your repeat medication slip.

When you collect an issue of your medication from your preferred pharmacy, they should always have a new repeat order slip in the bag of medication. We print this out at the surgery as part of your order and this is sent to the chemist. The pharmacy should give this back to you when you collect your medication. 

To order medication using your repeat slip, you can hand this into us at the front desk, post it through the letterbox at Elgin Health Centre (we cannot accept them through the post-box at Rothes Health Centre) or by handing it into your preferred pharmacy who will take it to us. 

If you do not have a repeat slip, you can get one printed out for you at the front desk of either Elgin Health Centre or Rothes Health Centre. 

Order your medication online.

We have two systems available for ordering medication online. The first is via Vision Online and ordering via Patient Services and the second is via the Elgin Health Centre website. Practice preference is that you would be registered with Vision Online as this is a more user-friendly and modern system. 

Vision Online / Patient Services

In order to use this service, you have to register for it. The service is open to all patients over the age of 16. You can register by completing a form, which is available from the front desk of Elgin Health Centre. We ask that you hand the completed form back to the practice yourself as we need to see you along with photographic ID in order to register you for this service. Once the form is completed and handed back to us, there are a few further steps to complete but these are detailed on the registration form. 

Once registered, if you encounter any issues with your login details, you will need to reset these yourself.  The Practice has no administrative access to the online system so we CANNOT reset your password or username for you. 

When ordering medication, Vision Online would present you with a list of your repeat medication that is available to you and you can select what you need to order. This is then submitted to us electronically and dealt with by the Pharmacy Team as per normal turnaround times.

Elgin Health Centre website

You would need to register for this service but this can be done easily via the website. Once registered, you will be able to order online via the Elgin Health Centre website, on the Prescriptions page then selecting “Order your repeat prescriptions online” at the top of the page. 

You can register for this service via the following link: Registered Services Logon (mysurgerywebsite.co.uk)

In the future, if you have any issues with your username or password for the EHC website system, we CAN reset this for you.  You would need to call the practice and ask one of the reception team to forward your request to the IT team at the practice who would reset this for you. This will not be an instant fix so will need to request your medication in another way.  

To order medication, the EHC website system would require you to know what medication you need to order as you would need to type this into the system. It will not present you with a list of your medication like the Vision Online Service does.

Turnaround for Ordering Repeat Medication

Due to the ongoing pressure on the NHS and Community Pharmacies, we are now asking for FIVE working days to process a prescription request. Your Community Pharmacy will also need additional time to make up your prescription for collecting. 

We will endeavour to process requests quicker, but please be mindful that if any item requires a review by a Clinician (i.e. not on repeat or given as a one-off) then this may delay the process. You may be asked for more information via text, or asked to submit an e-consult, to ensure correct treatment is prescribed.

URGENT REQUESTS

Requests for urgent prescription items must be made directly at the surgery by completing an 'Urgent Request Form.' These will be processed within 24 hours but if placed after 2pm then may not be ready until late the following day or the day after if being sent to a Community Pharmacy.

Please be aware that requesting this way is not to be used as a means of regularly ordering repeat medication. 

If you need medication that is on your list of repeats more urgently than 24 hours i.e. you have completely run out, then you will need to speak to your preferred pharmacy and ask them for an Emergency Supply and they will issue you with up to a weeks’ worth of medication. This will then give us time to process your regular prescription. 

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have enough medication at home and that you order medication in plenty time. Urgent requests are monitored by our Pharmacy Team at the practice. 

EXTERNAL REQUESTS

If you have a medical appointment out-with the GP practice and the clinician prescribes new medication or makes changes to your current medication, they will send us paperwork advising us of this. Depending on what type of appointment this is, this will be dealt with by our Pharmacy team and requests are usually completed within 5 working days of our pharmacy team receiving the paperwork. The community pharmacy can then take another 3 days to make this up for you.

All outpatient letters or discharge letters are received straight into the pharmacy team and will normally be actioned straight away but any letters from Consultants etc. have to be reviewed by your GP first and then sent to the Pharmacy team to process so these take a bit longer to process. 

If you are to start new medication within 48 hours of your appointment, the hospital are responsible for issuing you with this medication, not your GP practice.

We can only process the new medication/changes with the paperwork. Our Pharmacy team cannot process anything without receiving instructions. If we have not received it, you will be asked to chase this up with the relevant department. 

Preferred Pharmacy

All patients should have a preferred pharmacy on their file so that when a prescription is issued, we send it to the one you want. If you want to change this, you can speak to the front desk, call into the practice or make a note on any repeat slip that you have that you wish to change preferred pharmacies. 

Pharmacies that we can send prescriptions to are listed below:

Bishopmill Pharmacy, Elgin
Boots Pharmacy, High Street, Elgin
Boots Pharmacy, Glassgreen, Elgin
Boots Pharmacy, Edgar Road, Elgin
Baird’s Westend, High Street, Elgin
Duthie’s Pharmacy, Burghead & Hopeman
Rothes Pharmacy, High Street, Rothes
Right’s Pharmacy, Clifton Road, Lossiemouth
Right’s Pharmacy, Queen Street, Lossiemouth
Right’s Medicine, Lhanbryde
Aberlour Pharmacy, High Street, Aberlour 

Or you can have your preferred pharmacy set to “Collect” and you can collect prescriptions when they are ready from the health centre and take them to a pharmacy yourself.