Launceston Medical Centre have confirmed that patients will have to collect prescriptions from the practice after Tesco informed the centre it will no longer accept delivery of paper prescriptions from November 1.

In the last week, the Post has been contacted by users of the practice who have raised concerns over the discontinuation of the delivery of prescriptions to the local Tesco pharmacy in Launceston.

Patients reported that they have been handed a ‘sheet of paper’ when collecting their prescription from Tesco stating that, from November 1, patients will have to collect their prescriptions from the medical centre and take them to Tesco themselves.

The Post contacted Launceston Medical Centre to search for answers as to why the practice will no longer be delivering prescriptions to the local Tesco store.

Practice manager, Andrew Yardley explained: “As you are aware we have been delivering paper prescriptions to Tesco on behalf of patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week.

“Tesco have informed us that they will no longer accept paper prescriptions being delivered in this way and are asking their customers to collect their prescriptions from the practice and drop to Tesco themselves from 01/11/2024.

“To confirm, this is not a decision that has been made by the practice. We are very happy to continue to deliver prescriptions and even discuss the possibility of increasing the number of deliveries to Tesco to help avoid delays for patients.”

Users of the practice have also continued to urge the centre to introduce the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). This would enable prescriptions to be sent electronically to any nominated pharmacy in the UK and the GP would no longer need to sign prescriptions as this would all be done electronically.

Patients spoke out recently about why the practice should be using a quicker electronic service after there were complaints about long queues to collect prescriptions.

Twenty months down the line and despite an uptake of this service being introduced in many areas in the UK, Launceston Medical Centre still remains without the system.

Andrew added: “We are aware that part of the problem is that Launceston Medical Centre are not enabled for EPS (Electronic Prescription Service) currently, due to the functionality not being fully available. We have been trying for some years to solve this problem and face similar problems to other dispensing practices in the country.

“Unfortunately, there is little we can do about this situation and are open to discussion with Tesco until a long-term solution is found. We apologise for the disruption this may cause our patients.”

The Post has contacted Tesco for a comment.