NHS Prescriptions

A repeat prescription is a medicine your GP has agreed you can have again without a new appointment each time, usually for a long-term condition such as high blood pressure, asthma, type 2 diabetes or an underactive thyroid. Your surgery authorises a set number of issues, then asks you back for a medication review before renewing them.

You order the repeat from your GP surgery, not from us. Most people now do it in the NHS App or through their surgery's online service, but a phone call or a paper repeat slip works just as well. Allow around five working days, which is the NHS guide. Order too early and the surgery may decline it; order the day your last box empties and you will almost certainly have a gap. Once the signed prescription reaches us, most are ready within 10 to 15 minutes, and a complex one can take up to an hour.

You pay the standard NHS prescription charge for each item unless you are exempt. You pay nothing if you are under 16, aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education, 60 or over, hold a valid maternity, medical or war pension exemption certificate, or receive certain benefits or help through the NHS Low Income Scheme. If you pay for several items every month, ask us about a prescription prepayment certificate, which caps what you spend on NHS charges over three or twelve months.

We are open Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm, and closed on Sunday, so plan bank holiday cover before you run low. Our chemist sits on Pinner Road between North Harrow and Harrow town centre, and plenty of our regulars collect on the walk home from West Harrow or on the way through from the town centre. If you are collecting for someone else, just bring their name, address and date of birth.

EPS is the NHS system that sends a prescription from your GP's computer to a pharmacy's computer over a secure NHS network. Since November 2019 GP practices in England have been required to issue eligible prescriptions this way. Nothing is printed, nothing gets lost in a coat pocket, and nobody queues at the surgery reception for a slip.

To use it you nominate one pharmacy. That simply means telling the NHS which pharmacy you want your prescriptions sent to, and from then on every repeat arrives there automatically until you change it. It takes about a minute: tell us in the shop, ask your GP receptionist, set it in the NHS App, or nominate us as your pharmacy online.

You are not locked in. You can change or cancel a nomination at any time through any pharmacy or your GP surgery, but do it before your next prescription is due or it will already have gone to the old address. If a prescription has been sent here and you are away, ring us on 020 8863 6338 and we will sort it out. Paper still works alongside EPS, so bring in any paper prescription or token as normal.

A private prescription is one written outside the NHS, by a private GP, a specialist clinic, a dentist working privately, an online prescriber, or one of our own independent prescribers. We dispense them alongside our NHS work, and you do not need to be registered with us to bring one in.

The difference is how you pay. On an NHS prescription you pay a fixed charge per item, or nothing at all if you are exempt. A private prescription has no fixed charge: you pay for the medicine itself plus a dispensing fee, so the cost depends entirely on which medicine and what quantity has been prescribed. Bring it in or send us a photo and we will confirm the cost and stock before you commit to anything. A prescription prepayment certificate does not help here, because it only caps NHS charges.

Most prescriptions, NHS or private, must be dispensed for the first time within six months of the date written. Prescriptions for Schedule 2, 3 and 4 controlled drugs are valid for only 28 days, again whether NHS or private, so bring those to us promptly. Some medicines are only ever supplied privately, including the antimalarials from our travel clinic and the treatments prescribed through our weight loss clinic. Keep your receipt if you intend to claim on private medical insurance.

We deliver free to housebound patients in the local area. If you cannot get to the pharmacy, whether you are recovering from surgery, living with a condition that limits how far you can travel, or caring for someone who is, call us on 020 8863 6338 and we will arrange it. Deliveries go out on set days, so tell us what you need before the last box empties, and make sure someone will be in, because we want a record that the medicine reached the right person.

For anyone juggling several medicines a day, ask about blister packs. Each dose is sorted into a tray by day and time, so it is obvious at a glance whether this morning's tablets have been taken. Families caring for an older relative around North Harrow or over in Pinner often set this up alongside delivery, so a whole month is handled in one arrangement.

If you are starting a medicine for a long-term condition, you may qualify for our new medicine service, which gives you three free NHS consultations in the first month to check the medicine suits you. And if what you need is treatment rather than a repeat, Pharmacy First lets our pharmacist assess and treat seven common conditions without a GP appointment.