We recommend that you order your repeat prescriptions in good time – please allow 10 working days after placing a prescription request for us to deliver your medicines to you.

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Although our service is normally much quicker than 10 working days, we recommend to allow enough time for:

1. Your GP to issue the prescription to us,

2. For us to check and process your prescription

3. For Royal Mail to deliver your medicine to you

If you need your medicines more quickly, we recommend that you directly contact your surgery and ask for a prescription that you can obtain from a nearby pharmacy. Most surgeries can send a one-off electronic prescription to a local pharmacy, without stopping any of your subsequent prescriptions coming to Pharmacy2U. Or they could give you a paper prescription, that you can take into the pharmacy of your choice.

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If we have a prescription for you and you need it sooner, you can have us release your prescription so you can have a local pharmacy dispense the medicine on this occassion. You can find out more about this here.

Are you nearly out of medicines already, or have you already run out?

If you are nearly running out of medicines, or if you have run out already, the there are other things you can do to get a new supply quickly.

If you’ve run out of a medicine you are prescribed regularly, the NHS has a service called “Emergency Prescriptions”, where a local pharmacy can dispense a limited emergency supply to tide you over until your next prescription is ready (it may only be a small supply, though – so don’t forget to order a new ‘normal’ prescription in the usual way, as well). This service is only available for patients in England. If you don’t normally pay for your NHS prescriptions, there will be no charge for the service; otherwise, you will be asked to pay a prescription charge for the medicine supply. You can access the service by calling 111, or by using the NHS website on this link: https://111.nhs.uk/emergency-prescription

(If you are not in England, you’ll find more details about how to access care here.)

Alternatively, you can visit your local pharmacy directly, who may give you a limited quantity of medicines to tide you over in an emergency. There may be a charge for this service, and it may reflect the actual cost of the medicines you are given because this is a private service (rather than being NHS funded).

There are some exceptions to the types of medicine you can get using the methods above – for example, antibiotics for a new or recent problem, or controlled drugs.

You could also visit an urgent treatment centre, call your GP surgery, or if it’s an emergency and there are no other options, you can always visit your local Accident & Emergency department.

You will find more information about all of these options on the NHS website here. For more advice, contact our customer care team using the details here.