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Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System

David McRae Orcid Logo, Abigail Gould, Rebecca Price-Davies, Jonathan Tagoe, Andrew Evans Orcid Logo, Delyth James Orcid Logo

Pharmacy, Volume: 9, Issue: 2, Start page: 77

Swansea University Author: Delyth James Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/pharmacy9020077

Abstract

This study investigates public attitudes towards medicinal waste and medicines reuse within a ‘free prescription’ healthcare system. A quantitative online survey was employed in a sample drawn from the population of Wales, where prescription medicines have been ‘free’ since 2007. Qualitative intervi...

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Published in: Pharmacy
ISSN: 2226-4787
Published: MDPI AG 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69694
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last_indexed 2025-07-09T05:03:00Z
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spelling 2025-07-08T16:02:49.5167960 v2 69694 2025-06-11 Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System dc24cdd4d09d96fa49a0f213d1060cf9 0000-0001-7434-7064 Delyth James Delyth James true false 2025-06-11 MEDS This study investigates public attitudes towards medicinal waste and medicines reuse within a ‘free prescription’ healthcare system. A quantitative online survey was employed in a sample drawn from the population of Wales, where prescription medicines have been ‘free’ since 2007. Qualitative interviews informed the content of the attitude statements with categorical or ordinal response options assigned. The questionnaire was hosted on the HealthWise Wales platform for 1 year from October 2017. Of the 5584 respondents, 67.2% had at least one medicine on repeat prescription. Overall, 89.1% held strong concerns about medicinal waste. High acceptance for the reuse of prescription medicines which have been returned unused by patients to pharmacies was reported for tablets (78.7%) and capsules (75.1%) if the medicine is checked by a pharmacist first (92.4% rated essential). Concerns identified related to tampering of packs (69.2%) and the need for hygienic storage (65.4%). However, those working in healthcare had less concern about the safety of reusing medicines. The level of public acceptance for the reuse of medication was higher than previously reported. This is the largest survey to capture these views to date, which has implications for the future design of medicines reuse schemes. Journal Article Pharmacy 9 2 77 MDPI AG 2226-4787 medicines reuse; medicinal waste; re-dispensing; re-issuing; redistribution; recycling; public views; public attitudes; medicines storage 8 4 2021 2021-04-08 10.3390/pharmacy9020077 COLLEGE NANME Medical School COLLEGE CODE MEDS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This research received no external funding. 2025-07-08T16:02:49.5167960 2025-06-11T14:43:13.9261648 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences Swansea University Medical School - Pharmacy David McRae 0000-0002-2764-2244 1 Abigail Gould 2 Rebecca Price-Davies 3 Jonathan Tagoe 4 Andrew Evans 0000-0001-9486-283x 5 Delyth James 0000-0001-7434-7064 6 69694__34707__1e836c5be1264f0788d40a18767519a3.pdf 69694.VoR.pdf 2025-07-08T15:59:57.7953358 Output 301215 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2021 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
spellingShingle Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
Delyth James
title_short Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
title_full Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
title_fullStr Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
title_full_unstemmed Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
title_sort Public Attitudes towards Medicinal Waste and Medicines Reuse in a ‘Free Prescription’ Healthcare System
author_id_str_mv dc24cdd4d09d96fa49a0f213d1060cf9
author_id_fullname_str_mv dc24cdd4d09d96fa49a0f213d1060cf9_***_Delyth James
author Delyth James
author2 David McRae
Abigail Gould
Rebecca Price-Davies
Jonathan Tagoe
Andrew Evans
Delyth James
format Journal article
container_title Pharmacy
container_volume 9
container_issue 2
container_start_page 77
publishDate 2021
institution Swansea University
issn 2226-4787
doi_str_mv 10.3390/pharmacy9020077
publisher MDPI AG
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str Swansea University Medical School - Pharmacy{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Swansea University Medical School - Pharmacy
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description This study investigates public attitudes towards medicinal waste and medicines reuse within a ‘free prescription’ healthcare system. A quantitative online survey was employed in a sample drawn from the population of Wales, where prescription medicines have been ‘free’ since 2007. Qualitative interviews informed the content of the attitude statements with categorical or ordinal response options assigned. The questionnaire was hosted on the HealthWise Wales platform for 1 year from October 2017. Of the 5584 respondents, 67.2% had at least one medicine on repeat prescription. Overall, 89.1% held strong concerns about medicinal waste. High acceptance for the reuse of prescription medicines which have been returned unused by patients to pharmacies was reported for tablets (78.7%) and capsules (75.1%) if the medicine is checked by a pharmacist first (92.4% rated essential). Concerns identified related to tampering of packs (69.2%) and the need for hygienic storage (65.4%). However, those working in healthcare had less concern about the safety of reusing medicines. The level of public acceptance for the reuse of medication was higher than previously reported. This is the largest survey to capture these views to date, which has implications for the future design of medicines reuse schemes.
published_date 2021-04-08T05:28:53Z
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