Where are GP residents learning to manage emergencies?

prescriptions, our Oxfordshire practice has a three-fold increase in admin load in approving repeat prescription requests.The practice justifies this in written additional information attached to the repeat prescription slip, saying that ' [they] supply one month of medication to aid safe prescribing and monitoring of medication and to reduce wastage'.This statement seems disingenuous given that published research confirms that longer durations of prescribing are more efficient for both practices and patients. 1It is hard to imagine why dispensing practices might opt for the more time-consuming process of issuing 28-day repeat prescriptions other than to assume that this boosts income through an increase in prescription fees.It is not surprising that practices might 'play the system' in order to make their dispensing service more profitable.But this policy gives rise to inconvenience for patients and inefficiency in terms of wasting practice time on unnecessary administration and is therefore ultimately bad for the NHS.We therefore hope, in future, to see a standardised prescription duration policy in England, in which patients' needs and preferences are prioritised over practice income.