NHS Online Pharmacy

You will need to create an account with NowPatient before you are able to place orders for your NHS repeat prescriptions. You can create an account using your e-mail address or you can use your NHS login credentials.

If you are creating an account using your e-mail address, then you will need to provide the following information during sign-up:

• First name
• Last name
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Ethnicity
• Home address including Post Code
• Contact number (landline or mobile number)

Once your account has been successfully created, you will need to navigate to your Account section and select ‘Doctor Profile’ from where you will need to provide:

• Name & Address of your GP surgery in England

If you are creating an account by logging in with your NHS Login credentials, then we will be provided with the following information about you:

• First name
• Last name
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Home address including Post Code
• Contact number (landline or mobile number)
• Name & Address of your GP surgery in England

This depends on the method that you used to create your account with NowPatient.

If you used your NHS login credentials, then your repeat prescriptions will be viewable within 10 minutes. You can view your prescriptions by selecting ‘order prescription’ from the action button on the NHS Online Pharmacy Service Card.

If you created an account with your email, It is important that you first add your GP details into the ‘Doctor Profile’ which is accessible from your account section. Once this is done, your available prescriptions will generally be viewable within 4 hours. You can check your available prescriptions by selecting ‘order prescription’ from the action button on the NHS Online Pharmacy Service Card. If your NHS repeat prescriptions do not appear after more than 4 hours, then please reach out to our customer care team for resolution.

NHS login is a simple and secure way to access multiple digital health and care services with one set of login details. You can use one email address and password to securely manage and access your healthcare apps and websites. Find out more about NHS login setup.

NowPatient is integrated with the NHS which means you can use your NHS login credentials to directly access NowPatient. You can do this by clicking the blue NHS login button and using your NHS login credentials.

This is common. The NHS may need you to supply additional information so they can prove who you are before granting us access to your personal information.

No. You will need a fully verified account with NHS login to be able to use it as a method to log in with NowPatient.

If you use NHS login to access NowPatient services, we will synchronise the data from your NHS account to your NowPatient account. Therefore, if your personal details have changed, then you will need to update your information through NHS login or contact your GP to request a change.

When you create an account with NowPatient, you are effectively choosing NowPatient to dispense your NHS medications.

At present you can only nominate one pharmacy to receive your electronic prescriptions, however, your nominated pharmacy can be switched at any time. You do not need to inform your existing pharmacy.
Remember, you are in full control of which pharmacy provider you nominate and you are not obliged or tied down to any single pharmacy provider.

As part of our terms of use, we require you to nominate our pharmacy to dispense your NHS prescriptions. If we receive notification that we have been de-nominated then your account will be automatically suspended.

Do not worry, if you did not mean to denominate NowPatient, we can reactivate your account easily. You can do this by calling or emailing us but the easiest way to reactivate your account is by logging into your account, where you will see a suspense screen asking you if you would like to re-nominate NowPatient. If you confirm the re-nomination request, then your account will be reactivated.

If, however, you wish to change pharmacy, then your account will be deleted. All your information will be deleted except for data that is held in line with our data retention policy, which we are required to maintain, by law.

NowPatient services can be accessed using service cards that can be viewed on the account dashboard. Each service card has an ‘action’ button that allows you to use or manage the service.

After logging into your account, you will need to navigate to the NHS services section of the dashboard, from where you will see the NHS Online Pharmacy service card. You should then use the action button to select ’Order prescription’.

This will take you to the ‘Available prescriptions’ screen, from where you will be able to see a list of your current NHS repeat prescriptions which are available for ordering.

Select the medications you wish to order and ‘Add to cart’. You will see a modal confirming the medication has been added to the Cart.

After you have finished adding all the medications you wish to order, select the Cart icon on the navigation bar. This will take you to the Cart page. Here, a modal will appear which will request your exemption status. If you are exempt from paying NHS prescription charges, you should select the exemption type for each medication and then provide confirmation before selecting the ‘Next’ button.

If your GP practice allows us to deliver personal messages, then a modal will pop up, asking if you would like to leave a message. Messages are useful in situations where you need to request additional medication to cover you over a planned holiday. If you do not want to leave a message, simply select ‘No’. If you do want to leave a message, select ‘Yes’ and a new modal will pop up which will allow you to leave the personalised message, after which you can ‘send’. Your GP will receive your message along with your prescription order, as soon as you have successfully checked out.

You will now be taken back to the Cart, from where you will be able to select your shipping method, shipping address and then checkout.

Once the checkout is complete, your prescription order will be sent to your GP electronically, for approval. This process may take up to 72 hours.

Once your prescription order has been authorised by your GP, we will dispense the medication and prepare it for delivery. At each stage of the process, we will send you status notifications.

You can check the live status of your order by selecting ‘Current orders’ from the action button on the ‘Orders’ Service Card on the dashboard.

Yes. From time to time, you may need to inform your GP about things like holidays, where you may need an additional supply. With NowPatient we’ve made it possible for you to leave short notes for your GP when you place an order for your prescription such as ‘Please supply me an additional month’s supply to cover my holiday’.

Yes. When you place an order with NowPatient, we will keep you fully updated with the status of your order. Every time the status of your order changes, you will be notified immediately. These notifications will be sent by Email, Push Notification and also available in the Notifications Service Card on the dashboard. You can click the notification and it will take you to the relevant order details screen that will give you a timeline overview of the progress of your order.

Yes. During the checkout process, the shipment screen is where you can choose which address you would like your order to be shipped out to. By default, this is set as your registered/billing address that was used when you signed up. In addition, you will see other shipping address options that you would have set up in ‘Shipping Addresses’ in your account. If you would like to add a new address from the order shipment screen, you can do this by clicking the link ‘add new shipping address’. This will trigger a modal which you can use to enter in the new shipping address. This new address will also now be added to your ‘Shipping Addresses’ in your account, for future use.

Please remember, for NHS prescription orders, the first order you make will always be delivered to your registered/billing address. Subsequent orders can have shipping addresses changed.

We currently deliver to all UK postcodes. Some postcodes in rural areas may have a slightly longer delivery time.

All orders are shipped in discreet and unmarked packaging. Please make sure you are available to accept your order at the delivery address you have selected, this includes weekends and bank holidays.

For thermo-sensitive orders (e.g. Insulin or weight loss injections) we use cold chain-validated packaging. Your parcel will normally receive an estimated delivery window from the courier on the day of delivery.

For your protection and safety, your first order can only be delivered to the address that is registered with the NHS. Future orders can be delivered to any other address, for example, your workplace.

Yes. We use a specialist courier service for all thermo-sensitive deliveries. This is to ensure that cold chain integrity is always maintained and thus the product quality, safety and efficacy.

Learn more about how we handle the delivery of temperature-sensitive products.

Yes. We use a specialist courier service for all controlled drug deliveries. This is to ensure safe custody is maintained.

We aim to ship all orders placed Monday – Friday before 3pm on the same day. Orders placed outside these times will be shipped the next working day. All deliveries are shipped with Royal Mail, DPD, or DHL who deliver Monday – Saturday.

Our delivery options have the following delivery times:

• Royal Mail Standard Tracked & Signed for Delivery for NHS prescriptions – 2/3 day delivery (normally 48 hours)
• DHL Express Tracked Delivery – 1/2 day delivery (normally 24 hours)
• Royal Mail Special Delivery – Next working day (Royal Mail Guaranteed before 1pm)

Delivery is normally made promptly after your dispatch notification is received. You can check the tracking details of your order in the ‘My Notifications’ section of your dashboard, at any point after dispatch.

Unfortunately, packages can sometimes get lost in the delivery system, if after 10 days you have not received your delivery, please contact us and we will do all we can to resolve the problem.

In cases where you have not received the items that you were expecting, it is likely that the GP did not approve them.

This may be for several reasons such as:

• Your order was placed too early
• Your GP would like to review your medication with you directly
• Your treatment course has expired and is no longer repeatable

In any of the above cases, you should make direct contact with your GP.

You can get free NHS prescriptions if, at the time the prescription is dispensed, you:

There’s a simple way to find out if you’re eligible for free NHS prescriptions and any help with other NHS costs. Use the eligibility checker.

A PPC (prepayment certificate) lets you get as many NHS prescriptions as you need for a set price, a bit like a season ticket for the bus. A PPC is valid for either 3 months or 12 months, depending on the type of certificate you buy. The prescription charge in England is currently £9.90 per item.

A PPC costs:

• £32.25 for 3 months
• £114.50 for 12 months

You can buy one online, or get more information from the NHS.

We only use medication that is sourced, produced and packaged in the UK. We supply the brand recorded on the prescription. Should you need a specific brand contact us at support@nowpatient.com or inform your Doctor that you prefer a specific brand of medication so that they can add it to your prescription.

If you have been getting that same brand all the time, we will be able to see this on your patient record and ensure only that specific brand is provided.

The easiest way to do this is to go to your GP as usual and ask them to send your prescription by EPS to Infohealth Pharmacy (FM824). The request will then come to us, and we will process it, sending your items to you with no delivery charge.

If you have a paper prescription and you would like NowPatient to process it, you should ask your GP surgery to recreate it as an electronic message (EPS) and send it to us. Our provider code is FM824.

Alternatively, the surgery can mail the prescription to NowPatient c/o Infohealth Pharmacy, 28 Chipstead Valley Road, Surrey CR5 2RA.

No. NowPatient accounts are unique to each individual.

This service is commissioned by NHS England and is only available to patients in England. You will not be able to use the feature if you live in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.

No, you do not need to inform your GP. After you have created an account, we will automatically link your account to your GP. This allows you to view and order your available NHS repeat prescriptions from your NowPatient account.

Using NowPatient does not cost the NHS any more money than if you were to use a high street pharmacy. Every pharmacy in the country is paid a set fee for each item they dispense to the public. It is then up to that pharmacy what they do with that money.

You can help us detect and record unexpected adverse reactions that are vital for monitoring drug safety.

You can do this in two ways:

• Using the ‘Report Side Effects’ from your Account. This will link to the Yellow Card Scheme which allows you to report suspected side effects from a medicine, vaccine, or medical device in the UK. You can self-submit a report to the Yellow Card Scheme from your account settings. The Yellow Card Scheme is run by the medicines safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
• Using the ‘Report Side Effects’ Service Card on the dashboard. You should select the action button ‘Report Side Effect’. This will send you to an AI chatbot that will interview you to collect the report. You can view your previous reported side effects by selecting the action button ‘View Reported Side Effects’.

There are exceptions to our Refunds & Cancellation policy for certain items. Please note this is a non-exhaustive list and that these conditions do not affect your non-excludable statutory rights.

For reasons of health, hygiene safety and copyright, we are unable to exchange or refund the following products:

• Perishable items (food, confectionery, baby milk);
• Medicinal products or services that are dispensed or purchased;
• Items personalised or cosmetics;
• Unsealed products or items are worn next to the skin or hair