Northern Ireland: around 165 tonnes of prescription medicine wasted annually

Around 165 tonnes of unused public medicines are disposed of through community pharmacies in Northern Ireland a year.

The Department of Health previously estimated the wasted medicines are valued at £18m annually and is compounded by £650,000 to dispose of these safely.

Chief pharmaceutical officer Cathy Harrison said reducing this waste could increase available funding for the health service and have a positive impact on the environment.

"Medicines waste occurs for many reasons but sometimes patients receive or order medicines they don't actually need or use, or use only occasionally," she said.

"Reducing this level of wastage is therefore something that we can all play our part in tackling. For instance, work has shown that around 30% of the medicines returned to community pharmacies have not even been opened. This means that patients are ordering and receiving medication that they don't need and won't use."

The figures have been released for transparency to raise awareness in the hopes of reducing the amount of money spent unnecessarily on prescribed medicines across health and social care.

The department said Northern Ireland says the number of prescriptions for patients is rising each year as the nation uses more of almost every type of medicine than in other parts of the UK.

Patients are being urged not to stockpile, as the department is working closely with health service staff including GPs and community pharmacists to focus on how medicines and appliances are prescribed.

Prof Harrison added that the figures do not include all medicine waste.

"While I would stress that patients with unused medicines should return them to community pharmacies for safe disposal, this too has a cost as the returned medicines can't be reused and need to be destroyed," said Prof Harrison.

"These figures do not include the medicines waste that is disposed of in our normal household waste or flushed down toilets, which should never happen because it goes into the water system and has an added impact on our environment."