Rules about dispensing repeat medication

Vets and Vet nurses are often asked to re-dispense medications that have been previously supplied by the vet surgery or even been previously dispensed by a different vet surgery.

As clients sometimes become quite upset by refusal to supply some medications, eg antibiotics, I thought it an opportune time to explain again the rules of dispensing that vets have to abide by.

Essentially there are no differences in the rules of prescription that apply to vets or doctors. The only obvious difference is that vets don't generally supply a written instruction or ‘prescription' to a client to take to a chemist to be filled, but supply the medications themselves.

This means that a vet has to either perform a checkup on a patient before dispensing ‘prescription animal remedies', or have seen the pet recently enough to be satisfied that the pet's condition has not changed and warrants a continuation of the same medication. If the pet is a patient of another vet, then that vet may be telephoned to gain permission to dispense, which may or may not be forthcoming.

These rules apply only to ‘prescription animal remedies', and any other medication or treatment may be sold over the counter on request, much the same as buying ‘cold and flu' medication at the chemist.