A DRAMATIC increase in unwanted medicines has prompted a pharmacist to urge prescription users to help save millions of wasted pounds.

Hooman Ghalamkari, pharmacist at DG Pharmacy in Dines Green, said returned prescriptions, which had risen massively over the last three months, had to be destroyed costing the NHS valuable money.

He said he was worried about patients' health, as people often stopped taking their prescribed course of antibiotics, believing they felt better.

"In Worcestershire we are wasting one ton of medicine a year - that runs into millions of pounds," he said.

"That's money the NHS could use to fund hospital beds, pharmacies, doctors and nurses.

"I don't want to criticise people if they are not taking their medicines as it has to fit into their lifestyle, but they are not being taken the way they should be taken.

"People take them until they feel better then do not take the full course.

"They won't have killed off their germs or bacteria, and then the infection comes back."

Second course

Mr Ghalamkari said if people did not take their full course of antibiotics, they may have to be prescribed a second, stronger, course.

"Sometimes people order other medicines they don't necessarily need," he said.

"They stockpile them.

"The NHS is cash-strapped, but they're wasting a lot of money on medicines not being used.

"We should encourage people that, if they have any questions, to discuss them with a health professional, doctor, pharmacist or nurse."

Dennis Ogle, pharmacist at DL Ogle Ltd in St John's, said patients sometimes thought they would offend the doctor if they did not order every repeat prescription.

"Sometimes we have to destroy something that costs two or three hundred pounds," he said.

Janet Ferguson, spokeswoman for the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, backed Mr Ghalamkari's comments.

"We're trying to encourage people not to order repeat prescriptions they don't need," she said.