In the Coventry and Warwickshire area we have to prescribe from a carefully selected list of medications in line with local policies. This is known as a formulary which provides the best evidence of efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness to the NHS.
From time to time we may need to change your prescribed medication to meet the requirements of the Coventry and Warwickshire formulary. On these occasions we would contact you to inform of these changes.
Sometimes we are asked to prescribe medications which are either restricted to the local hospital formulary or are not on either the local hospital or GP formulary. Under these circumstances it is not always possible to prescribe these medications. We understand that this can be very frustrating for patients but we need to ensure that all patients are treated fairly. In these sorts of situations, the medication will not normally be prescribed by the General Practitioner on the NHS. The alternative is either that the medication is prescribed on the NHS by the secondary care consultant (if it was their recommendation and it is in line with the hospital formulary) or privately either by General Practice or the secondary care consultant.
In certain circumstances, we will seek advice from the Coventry and Warwickshire Area Prescribing Committee Medicines Management Team about whether we should prescribe certain medications.