Medication Reviews Posted or Updated on 27 May 2025

Have you noticed your medicines say "unavailable" when you try and re-order them?

We can explain!  When your medicines are added to your repeats they are "authorised" for a certain length of time - this is normally a year but can vary depending on what the medicine is. Once the medicine has been issued for this length of time it is a requirement that they are "reauthorised" before they can be prescribed again.

Reauthorisations are clinical checks by one of our GPs or pharmacists to ensure that the medicine is safe and appropriate to continue to take. Sometimes you will need a blood test or a medication review before the medicine is put back onto repeat again and this is normally highlighted at the time of a reauthorisation.

You can still order the medication that says "unavailable" - just put a request in the free-text box and this will prompt it to be reauthorised. This also explains why some of your prescriptions arrive at the pharmacy separately from the others - as there has been an extra step in the process to issue it.