Where a prescription is clinically appropriate, it is issued electronically during or immediately after your consultation and sent to the pharmacy of your choice — including your usual one.
You choose the pharmacy, we send it there, and you collect. Most people can pick up the same day.
The prescription is a legally valid private prescription signed by a GMC-registered GP. If you would prefer a paper copy to take somewhere yourself, say so and we will arrange it.
You pay the pharmacy for the medication. See why a private prescription is not free.
Practical things worth knowing
- Ring the pharmacy before you set off if the medicine is less common. Not every branch holds everything, and they can usually order it for the next day
- Ask what it will cost before they dispense it. Private prices vary between pharmacies, sometimes substantially, and you are entitled to ask
- A private prescription is generally valid for six months from the date written, and shorter for some medicines. It does not have to be used immediately
- Choose a pharmacy you can get back to. Continuity matters more than convenience if you will need the same medicine again
Repeats
A prescription is issued for a defined quantity rather than as an open-ended repeat, and further supply is tied to the monitoring that medicine requires. On pay as you go that means booking a review consultation; on membership repeats are included without booking one, though the monitoring intervals are the same either way.
That is not an obstacle placed in front of the medicine — for most long-term treatments the monitoring is the care.
If your pharmacy cannot supply it
Tell us. Shortages happen, and there is often an equivalent preparation or a different strength that achieves the same thing. Do not simply go without and wait for the next appointment.