Share Your Medicines Waste Reduction Story

Published: 6th August 2026

Call for Best Practice Examples

Community Pharmacy Scotland is keen to showcase examples of how pharmacy teams are helping to reduce medicines waste across Scotland as part of work we involved in nationally.

We know that some of the most effective solutions are often simple, practical interventions developed and delivered by pharmacy teams themselves. Whether your approach is aimed at individual patients, care homes, repeat prescribing processes, staff training or wider service redesign, we would like to hear about it.

Examples might include:

• Helping patients order only the medicines they need

• Working with GP practices to reduce inappropriate repeat prescribing

• Initiatives with care homes to improve medicines ordering and stock management

• Staff training or awareness programmes focused on reducing waste

• Changes to delivery, collection or prescription ordering processes

• Local campaigns encouraging better use of medicines

• Innovative use of technology or data to identify and prevent waste

• Examples where a simple intervention led to better patient outcomes and less waste

When sharing your example, it would be helpful to tell us:

• What was the issue you were trying to address?

• What action did you take?

• Who was involved?

• What impact did it have?

• What lessons would you share with other pharmacy teams?

By celebrating and sharing good practice, we can demonstrate the valuable contribution community pharmacy makes to patient care, NHS sustainability and responsible use of medicines.

To submit an example, please contact CPS at enquiries@cps.scot with a brief description of your initiative and any outcomes achieved.

"Every avoided item of medicines waste represents not only a saving to the NHS, but an opportunity to improve patient care and support sustainability."

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