Counselling services for general practitioners

Sir, I read Arnold Zermansky's paper, 'Who controls repeats' (November Journal, p 643) with fascination. It is a paper that is highly relevant to all general practitioners. As the paper states, many practices do not tackle the problem of the regular re- authorization of repeat prescriptions because they are acutely aware of the workload implications. The solution has to lie in information technology. All it would take is a commitment to annually review all the patients' repeat medication at one time. This review could be done opportunisti- cally when the patient comes into the surgery with a problem, not necessarily the one that the prescription is for. Whenever the doctor accesses the prescribing screen on his computer, a warning could flash up: 'Annual review of all repeat medication due — would you like to do this now?' This method has the merit of simplicity and, although it would increase consulta- tion time, it would not generate any more appointments. As far as I am aware, no computer system does this as yet. Perhaps we should lobby the suppliers to provide this facility.