Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what procedures are in place in NHS hospitals in England for the (a) retention or (b) reissue of prescribed medications for inpatients on their discharge from a hospital stay; how those medications' retention or reissue procedures compare with those followed in private hospitals; and what estimate his Department has made of the potential for NHS cost savings where inpatients retain their prescribed medications upon discharge.

National Health Service hospitals in England have procedures in place which recognise that retention and reissue of a patient’s own routine medicines, following a review, allows patients to continue with their familiar regime in their home or from their community pharmacy and reduces discharge delays and adverse incidents. Additional clinically urgent medicines, prescribed during the stay, are supplied by the hospital.

Other procedures include dispensing for discharge at the start of a stay, full dispensing of all medicines needed at discharge or, for short episodes where no changes are made to the patient’s medicine regime, no supply. The new Community Pharmacy Discharge Medicines Service can support patients requiring on-going support with their medicines needs after discharge.

All hospitals, whether NHS or private, are subject to the same regulatory standards, overseen by the Care Quality Commission. We have made no estimate of the potential for NHS cost savings of inpatients retaining their prescribed medications upon discharge.