A repeat prescription is issued by a prescriber when you are taking regular medication for conditions like asthma, diabetes or high blood pressure, or when you’re taking a regular contraceptive etc.

If you are on repeat medication your GP will usually issue a prescription to you without seeing you each time. This may be a batch of prescriptions covering several months or you may be ordering your prescription by:

• completing a repeat order slip each time.
• contacting your surgery.
• using your current pharmacy, who will be checking with you and ordering on your behalf.

Periodically your GP will then ask you to make an appointment to review your medication.

A one-off prescription is issued by a prescriber for a specific medical condition where you will only be taking the medication for a short period of time. This might be to provide some pain relief or antibiotics to treat an infection