Patient Led Ordering (PLO)
The way repeat prescriptions are ordered is changing.
All patients (who are able to do so) are required to order prescriptions directly from the GP practice. This means that for the majority of patients, the pharmacy will no longer order prescriptions on their behalf.
| JOIN THE WEBINAR: A webinar for community pharmacies will be held on 29th January @7:30pm. The session will provide more information about Patient Led Ordering (PLO). Further details will be shared in the coming weeks. |
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care (england.nhs.uk) committed GM to a target of 179,550 NHS app repeat prescription orders enabling patients in over 90% of practices to order repeat prescriptions using the NHS App by March 2025.
Further information is available here
You can also view a number of reference documents for GP practices on the PCB website
This change aims to:
• Reduce medicine waste.
• Give patients better control over the ordering of their own medication
• Improve safety by avoiding stockpiling of medication and prevent medication that has been stopped from being re-ordered by mistake
• Save practice time (especially if prescriptions are ordered online) with less time spent chasing and processing prescriptions and answering the phone to queries and complaints
Patients can order repeat medication in one of the following ways:
• Online via the GP practice online ordering process or the NHS App – this is the safest and easiest way
• Via the repeat prescription box at the GP practice
• Via post to the GP practice using the repeat prescription slip
The exception will be patients who are unable to order their medication by any of the recommended routes, are vulnerable, and/or housebound.
GPs should work closely with pharmacies to ensure patients who require additional assistance (Assisted Patients) get special care and specific policies geared to their personal needs.
This could mean that pharmacies continue to order on behalf of some patients, where all partners agree this is the best solution for a particular individual.
Practices will set their own date for the change in conjunction with their local community pharmacies to ensure appropriate measures are in place to manage the process.
Patients who already take their repeat prescription request slips into the GP practice or order their repeat medication online are not affected.
CPGM will seek to advise contractors and pharmacy teams of implementation dates as soon as they are agreed.
To support you during the rollout of PLO, a number of guidance documents have been published:
- Comms toolkit –includes key messages and social media assets to inform patients of the changes
- Updated covering comms and key medicine optimisation teams contacts
