An estimated £18 million is wasted every year on unused prescribed medicines including creams, inhalers and pain medications across West Yorkshire. By patients only ordering what they need, it helps NHS resources go where they are most needed instead of waste and reduce the environmental impact of healthcare.
When medicines are requested inaccurately waste accumulates that inconveniences people, poses a safety risk and contributes to medicines shortages. Beyond the financial impact, there is also the environmental cost from medicines that are prescribed but not taken, through both the waste of the medicine itself and the wasted resource to produce and supply the medicine. 25% of the NHS carbon footprint is related to medicines, with inhalers making up approximately 3% of that.
In response to local need the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board launched a behaviour change campaign called ‘Only order what you need’. This centred around educating patients or those ordering prescriptions on their behalf such as carers, on the impact of over-ordering and stockpiling prescription medicines, encouraging self-reflection of their ordering behaviour and to encourage patients to inform healthcare teams if receiving unintentional oversupply.
The campaign also addressed the barriers and motivations behind why patients may order repeat prescriptions when they don’t have an immediate need to.
A pre-existing campaign ran by North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC) the year earlier was adapted, this allowed us to use a limited budget on media buying rather than extensive campaign development. Graphics and resources were updated with local branding.
The targted online campaign included:
- Singposting to the campaign website Only order what you need
- Paid for adverts appeared on Meta Facebook, Instagram, Messenger to help us to reach adults aged 35 and over across West Yorkshire
- A variety of prescribing data metrics were used to detect areas of higher volume and prescribing costs per patient populationm and a list of 20 postcodes across the region were identified where the campaign could potentially have a greater impact
- A review at the halfway point where performance activity was reviewed and refreshed creatives added. ‘Saving NHS Money’ ads were replaced with new video assets centred on prevention and reducing medicine waste
Campaign summary and recommendations
The campaign ran from 7 July to 27 September 2025 and delivered strong results across reach, engagement and clicks, with over 9.5 million impressions and 340,823 people reached. Adverts generated 30,788 link clicks. Engagement was also high, with 114,932 post engagements across Meta, showing that the creative messages resonated with audiences.
Social media engagement
During the paid for advertising period a substantial amount of feedback and comments were left on posts. The feedback was grouped into themes in relation to medicines list, availability, unopened medicines, antibiotics, environment and stockpiling. View the Questions and Answers here.
Example below:
Q. Will it be taken off my medicines list if I don’t order it?
A. No. Even if you don’t order a medicine for a few months, it will still be on your repeat prescription list.
Let your GP practice or pharmacy know why you aren’t ordering it so they can note it on your medical record.
When you do re-order it your GP practice or pharmacy may contact you to make sure it’s still suitable for you.