Prescriptions
About your medication and prescriptions
It’s important to take prescription medicines as directed by your doctor or pharmacist. Always follow the advice you are given, and use your medication correctly. This advice is also important to remember if you are a carer responsible for managing someone else’s medicines.
Using prescription medication
- Take the exact dose at the right time
- Take only the medicines prescribed for you
- Order only the medicines you need and use from your GP
- Check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are planning to use other medication with your prescribed medication
- Always read the patient information leaflet that comes with your medication
- You will be reviewed at least once per year to ensure your medication is still appropriate and safe
If you're concerned about any prescription medicine you take, ask your pharmacist or doctor for more information.
What about antibiotics?
Antibiotics are medicines used to treat illnesses caused by bacterial infection. You shouldn't take antibiotics to treat a cold or flu, as these illnesses are caused by viruses and antibiotics will not help. In fact, there is usually no benefit with antibiotics for most coughs, sore throats and ear infections. It important to follow your doctor and pharmacist's advice when taking antibiotics.
If your doctor prescribes antibiotics, you must finish the course, even if you start to feel better. Let them know if you are experiencing side effects.
Drug-resistant bacteria
Drug-resistant bacteria don't respond to antibiotics and can cause infection and diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and meningitis.
You could increase the risk of developing drug-resistant bacteria if:
- You take antibiotics when you don’t need them (for example, to treat a viral infection, cough or sore throat)
- You take a partial dose of antibiotics
Doing these not only increases the risk of drug-resistant bacteria in your own body, but also in the population as a whole. This is becoming a significant public health concern, so please ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice if necessary.
Wasted medicine
If a pharmacist dispenses medicine but you don't use it, the medicine is wasted. If you don't take your medicine as prescribed:
- It is possible that your condition may not improve, or could get worse – you may even need further treatment or admission to hospital.
- The Health Service has paid for the medicine – money that could have been spent on other treatments or health services
Please only request medication that you need and plan to use.
Request prescriptions
The best way to request your repeat prescriptions online is by registering for Patient Access, which links securely with your prescription data from our system. You will need a registration code, which is available from reception.
Please allow two working days before collecting your prescriptions.
Request Patient Access code
Prescription request form
Due to the additional pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, patients who are not yet registered for Patient Access can request repeat prescriptions using the form below.
The community pharmacies are very busy, so please request your repeat prescriptions seven days before you need them and designate a local pharmacy to collect them on your behalf.
About this form
Using this form results in the information you enter being sent across the internet. We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of your information. Look for the padlock in the address bar, whoch confirms that the connection to our server is secure.
The server sends an email to our administration team, who then order the prescriptions you need. The information you submit in your request may be retained on our computers and the Northern Ireland Health & Social Care email server.
For more information about how we use your data to provide you with healthcare services, please see our privacy notice. Use of this form confirms your acceptance of the information being used in this way.