Order a Prescription
Repeat Prescriptions
Repeat prescriptions are for patients with long term medical conditions who receive regular treatment.
At least once a year, you will need a medication review (usually with our practice pharmacist or a doctor) where we will review together whether the medications are still right for you. Some patients will need more frequent reviews depending on their conditions and the medication they take.
Repeat medications are usually authorised for 1 year, which means that you should be able to order your medication on a regular basis (usually every 4 weeks) without any delay.
It is helpful for us and quicker for you if you can order your medications online, about a week before you need them. This avoids over-ordering and wasted medications.
Online Repeat Prescription ordering
You can order a prescription online in any of the following ways
If you need help with any of these, please let our reception team know, who can organise online access for you. Proxy access (with patient consent) can be set up for a trusted relative to order online for you if you are unable to do this yourself.
Other methods of ordering
If you are unable to use online prescription ordering you can order in the following ways
- By hand – tick the items you need on the right-hand side of your previous prescription and post it through our front door.
- By post – tick the items you need on the right-hand side of your previous prescription and send it to us.
From 1st February 2026 you will no longer be able to request your repeat prescriptions through third parties, this means pharmacies and online pharmacies will no longer be able to request medication on your behalf they all need to be ordered through your GP surgery. Patients using online pharmacies will need to order directly from the practice using NHS app or via this link, not the online systems of the pharmacy.
The practice CANNOT accept medication requests over the phone unless there are exceptional circumstances.
What we expect from you
- Please give 72 working hours’ notice of your request.
- It is your responsibility to check your stock of medication and ensure you do not run out and need to request a repeat prescription at the last minute.
- Please ensure you are attending your medication reviews and monitoring appointments (e.g. blood tests) regularly, especially if you are taking multiple repeat medications.
- Do not stockpile drugs at home, please return them to your local pharmacy who can dispose of them. Only order items you need each month. Requests stating “all medications” will not be processed, the required items must be specified.
Annual Review
- At least once a year, we need to review your medications and reauthorise them. This often involves having blood tests, blood pressure and weight checks, plus others depending on your health needs.
- You will then be contacted by a practice nurse, a practice pharmacist or a GP to review your health conditions and your medication to check that your treatments are up to date.
- On safety grounds the practice may reduce the quantities on your prescription, require in person collection from the surgery or decline your prescription request if monitoring or review is overdue and patients have not responded to requests to attend or missed appointments. Please help us to safely monitor your conditions and medications to avoid delays to your prescriptions.
Remembering your tablets
- If you are having problems remembering to take your regular medications, please discuss this with your community pharmacist or make an appointment with one of our pharmacists at the practice.
- The pharmacist can go through your medication with you, and we can try to simply your regime where possible.
- Other things that might help include:
- Positioning medication in visible places (e.g. morning medicines near toothbrush or kettle)
- Associating medicine taking with meals or other regular daily activity
- Medication reminder charts
- Setting alarms on your phone or using a medication reminder app
- You can buy daily or weekly pill boxes which you or someone you trust can fill in advance.
- A small number of people may benefit from their medication being put in boxes (MDS or NOMAD) by their pharmacy. However, this makes it more difficult to change medications and reduces your control over your medicines and are only used when necessary.
Prescriptions at your chemist
We now send all prescriptions electronically to the chemist of your choice. If you do not have a chemist, we will allocate one for you. You can ask your chemist to update your preference or ask the surgery staff to do this for you. You can also update your own preference in the NHS app. You can change your chosen chemist at any time.
Hospital requests for medication
Please note these are normally non-urgent and can take several working days to process, depending on when we receive the information. If medication is required urgently, it is the responsibility of the hospital to issue the prescription.
If you have a hospital prescription you should exchange this at the hospital pharmacy, as they are not accepted in community pharmacies.
Medication we can't prescribe
Paracetamol and other over the counter medicines
The cost to the NHS of prescribing medications that can be purchased inexpensively over the counter is enormous. For that reason, we no longer prescribe paracetamol, cold remedies, muscle rubs, vitamin D, and hayfever medication. To learn more click on the link here.
Gluten-Free Products
Gluten-Free Products can be given on prescription but only for patients with diagnosed wheat sensitivity. This must be a specialist diagnosis of coeliac disease or dermatitis herpetiformis). For all other indications, such as non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia (unless biopsy confirms enteropathy) and autism are prescriptions for gluten-free products are not permitted on the NHS. Only gluten free breads and mixes can be prescribed. Other GF products such as biscuits, cake mixes, cereals, cooking aids, pizza bases and pasta cannot be prescribed on the NHS. Patients eligible for GF prescriptions have a monthly allowance for how much they can be prescribed.
Blacklisted Products
Also, doctors are not allowed to prescribe blacklisted drugs to our patients on the NHS. This includes products such as shampoos, mouth wash, toothpaste, oral drops, eye drops, multivitamins, socks, certain creams for skin, and beauty lotion.
Many items are blacklisted and are not available on prescription in Sheffield. Most of these items are available to buy over the counter.
Non-repeat items (Acute Prescriptions):
Non-repeat prescriptions, known as ‘acute’ prescriptions are medicines that have been issued by the Doctor but not added to your repeat prescription records. This is normally a new medication issued for a trial period and may require a review with your doctor prior to the medication being added onto your repeat prescription records. Some medications are recorded as acute as they require to be closely monitored by your doctor. Examples include very strong pain medication, Anti-depressants and drugs of potential abuse.
Items no longer available on prescription:
NHS routinely monitors costs of medication, and some may not continue to be available on prescription from your GP. NHS instructs all GP practices to consider costs when prescribing medications. So, you may notice substitutions: Examples include
- Multiple brands of Calcium and Vitamin D chewable tabs substituted to Calci-D tabs.
- Aveeno cream substituted with Epimax oatmeal cream
- Using emollient creams to wash instead of Bath and shower emollients
- Branded medication substituted with generic equivalent medication
- Very high-value medication substituted with cheaper alternatives as they are available.
