Pharmacies are obliged to take back unwanted medicines from customers or residential care homes and you may receive such a request from a customer. The only exception is that you are not obliged to accept waste from nursing homes or GP surgeries.

There will be a pharmacy specific SOP for you to follow which will generally involve checking and completing a record of the medication and ensuring it is something the pharmacy is able to dispose of. There are some items that you should not accept such as needles or other sharps, veterinary medicines, batteries or anything else that is not a medicine.

When returning to the pharmacy inform the pharmacist that they are returned medicines as these cannot be reused even if they have not been opened because there is no way of knowing how they have been stored. If you have collected any controlled drugs (CDs) from the patient, you should inform the pharmacist as they have to be stored separately from other returned medication.

These stages cover the general outline of a delivering medication SOP and if you come across a situation not detailed in the SOP, you will need clarification from your pharmacist on what to do. Your pharmacist will need to add this to the SOP in case another team member encounters the same problem.