Often yes — but a continuation is still a prescribing decision, so it involves an assessment rather than simply copying what came before.
What helps
- The name, dose and strength, ideally from the box or a repeat slip rather than memory
- Who started it and roughly when
- Any recent monitoring blood tests, with the actual numbers
- Whether anything has changed — new symptoms, new medicines, pregnancy plans
What we will check
Whether the monitoring that should have happened has happened. A great many long-term prescriptions carry required blood tests that have quietly lapsed — kidney function on an ACE inhibitor, urate on allopurinol, B12 on long-term metformin, thyroid function on levothyroxine.
We will also ask whether you still need it. That is a genuinely useful question for anything started years ago for a problem that has since resolved.
What we will not take over
- Opioids and stimulants, remotely, under any circumstances, and benzodiazepines or z-drugs as an ongoing prescription
- Anything requiring a shared-care agreement — methotrexate, lithium, some biologics — which only an NHS practice can hold
- Medicines needing specialist supervision we cannot provide
Where we cannot continue something, we will say so before you pay rather than after.