Medicines reviews and advice

Half the medicines people take are not taken as intended, and most of the time nobody asked. A medicines review is twenty minutes in the consultation room with everything you take on the table, going through what each one is for, whether it is still needed, and what is getting in the way.

The NHS medicines review is for anyone on several regular medicines, especially after a change: a new diagnosis, a hospital stay, a new prescription that does not seem to agree with you. We go through each item, check for interactions and duplicates, make sure you know what each one is for and when to take it, and write to the GP with anything that should change. After a hospital discharge we do this within a week, because that is when things most often go wrong.

At the counter, the advice is free and honest: whether the branded painkiller is the same as the one at a third of the price (usually), whether the vitamin does anything (usually not), which hay fever tablet will not send you to sleep, and when something needs the GP rather than the shelf. New inhalers are demonstrated until you can do it; blood thinners come with the conversation about what to watch for.

What is included

• NHS medicines review, twenty minutes, free
• Discharge review within a week of leaving hospital
• Inhaler technique and new prescriptions explained
• Interactions and duplicates checked
• Honest advice at the counter on what is worth buying
• A letter to your GP with anything that should change

What it costs

Medicines reviews free on the NHS. Advice at the counter free, always. We will tell you when the cheaper version is the same thing. Prices include VAT where it applies. The prices page has every price, the travel vaccine table, and what the NHS covers.