Stakeholder views on the idea of medicines reuse in the UK

Donyai, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5403-6170, McCrindle, R., Hui, T. K. L. and Sherratt, R. S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7899-4445 (2021) Stakeholder views on the idea of medicines reuse in the UK. Pharmacy, 9 (2). 85. ISSN 2226-4787 doi: 10.3390/pharmacy9020085

Abstract/Summary

Abstract: People’s views about medicines reuse are being examined in a handful of qualitative studies and this commentary adds to that work by drawing on our own discussions with groups of stakeholders in the UK in the past two years. The reuse of medicines within the community pharmacy setting is not permitted in the UK but our multidisciplinary team anticipates that this position will change in the coming years as medication shortages and worries about environ-mental waste and financial losses from the destruction of unused medicines are brought to the fore. Indeed, for many stakeholders, the issue of waste is a strong feature of conversations about medicines reuse. In addition to this, stakeholders identify the numerous barriers to medicines re-use in the UK. This includes the current uncertainty about the quality of unused medicines re-turned to pharmacies, which could otherwise be reused. However, stakeholders have also been very willing to propose solutions to a range of existing barriers. Our commentary draws on stakeholder meetings to elaborate the range of views about medicines reuse within a UK context. The challenge is to move forward from these views to advance the technologies that will facilitate medicines reuse practically as well as legally.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/97474
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Biomedical Sciences Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Department of Bio-Engineering Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > School of Pharmacy > Pharmacy Practice Research Group
Publisher	MDPI
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