Polypharmacy and asynchronous prescribing in elderly patients within primary care

Focal points □ The study aim was to determine the extent of polypharmacy and degree of misalignment between repeat prescription intervals in the elderly population within a general practice surgery □ The study population (n=100; 71.0 per cent female) had an average age of 77.1±0.6 years and an average of 8.92±0.23 prescribed preparations per patient (range 6–16; total 892) □ There was misalignment between the repeat interval for preparations in almost one fifth of the sample studied □ The estimated cost to the practice of the prescribing misalignment was equivalent to over 6 per cent of total drug expenditure for these patients □ Independent review of repeat prescribing within general practice is valuable even when prescribing is well controlled