The role of pharmacy replenishment systems in decreasing pharmaceutical waste in the uk

This paper examines pharmacy replenishment systems and how these can be used to decrease pharmaceutical waste. The factors that contribute to pharmaceutical waste are patient understanding; supply chain management and the accuracy of pharmacy replenishment systems. Qualitative methods have been employed in order to gain an understanding of the concepts within a single case pharmacy. These include document collecting, observation and interviews to build a robust case study. This paper shows that pharmacy replenishment systems benefit from end user involvement in terms of increasing their accuracy and therefore decreasing pharmaceutical waste. In addition, patients create waste because approximately66.7% of the patients require more information about their medication. This source of pharmaceutical waste is currently being tackled through the new medical services.