Frequently Asked Questions
About PillTime
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PillTime is an online NHS pharmacy that takes care of all your prescription medication. We organise your medication into clearly labelled, easy to open, dose-specific pouches and deliver them to your door for free.
We are the fourth-largest pharmacy in England with headquarters based in Bristol.
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PillTime offers free delivery, and if you have four or more medicines, we will pouch your items for free. If you have less than four items, there is a £5 charge for our pouching service. If you pay for your prescriptions, the NHS fee still applies. If you do not pay for your prescriptions, your exemption status applies as normal.
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PillTime is on a mission to change the lives of people managing multiple medication. PillTime works in partnership with the NHS, to improve medication adherence and reduce dose errors, whilst facilitating people's independence and lifestyle. PillTime make it simple for patients to manage multiple medications.
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Yes, we recommend that you trial the service for 3 months to ensure you experience the benefits of using PillTime. Just sign-up by clicking on the sign-up button at the bottom of this page and completing the details.
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PillTime is not currently available to patients in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, as they do not use the electronic prescription service and use paper prescriptions instead.
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PillTime is best suited to people who take four or more types of prescribed medication each day. You need to have a surgery based in England. All ages and health conditions are welcome.
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PillTime uses AI and robotic technology to package individual medication doses into tailored packages. We check each pouch with the latest robot and scan technology under the supervision of our experienced pharmacists.
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The PillTime pouches are prepared according to the requirements of our BD Rowa robot. Every drug is checked by an Accuracy Checking Technician (ACT) before it goes into a canister onto our robot. The pouches are then optically scanned and rechecked by an ACT to ensure accuracy. The accuracy of our pouching is 100%.
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We follow your doctor's prescription instructions, so you need to ensure that these detail exactly when you want to take your medication and are for the correct amount of tablets for the medication cycle. In our experience a conversation with the surgery can sort this for you. PillTime aims to pouch as many medicines as possible, but sometimes, prescribed items may not be suitable for pouches as they might need to be more stable.We will send these items in the original packaging along with your pouches. Some examples are:
1. Medication that has a desiccant in the bottle which is needed to soak up moisture.
2. Medication that isn't to be taken daily or regularly, for example 'taken when required' or on alternate days.
3. Schedule 2 control drugs, for example morphine and methadone.
4. Schedule 3 and 4 control drugs, which need to be stored safely by law.
Pouching
PillTime & The NHS
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As a registered NHS pharmacy, PillTime provides your prescription medication on behalf of the NHS, like any other community pharmacy. PillTime is funded in the same was as the community pharmacies you see on the High Street and does not charge the NHS any extra fees for our additional service features, such as pouching and delivery. PillTime's primary goal is to help people live healthier, happier, longer lives by making medication simple. This, in turn, reduces pressure on vital NHS services.
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PillTime works in partnership with the NHS, to improve medication adherence and reduce dose errors, whilst facilitating people's independence and lifestyle. PillTime make it simple for patients to manage multiple medications.
Sign-Up & Onboarding
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Yes! Feel free to call our friendly Customer Care Team on 0800 074 3303 and they will be happy to help you.
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Click the 'sign-up' button at the bottom of this page and complete the simple form. It takes around two minutes to complete. You will need to provide your name, email, address, and date of birth to sign-up.
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Once your account has been successfully set up, we will email you to confirm that PillTime is your chosen NHS pharmacy. We recommend that you order your repeat prescription approximately 10-14 days before you need to start taking it. It's best to use a prescription ordering app such as the PillTime Prescription Ordering App, Patient Access, SystmOnline, or the NHS app. We will keep you updated on the progress of your order by email or text message. Alternatively, you can log into your online account to track the status of your order.
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Yes, as long as you have the permission of the person you are signing up. For safety, we may contact you for proof of your identity and your relationship with them.
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Should you no longer want to use PillTime you can simply let us know by contacting our Customer Care Team by emailing customerservices@pilltime.co.uk or by calling 0800 074 3303 so we can close your account.
Order & Delivery
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We are unable to send medications to you on a weekly basis. This is because it can take more than seven days to receive a prescription, then prepare and deliver PillTime pouches. If you receive regular weekly prescriptions, you can ask your GP to change your prescriptions to be monthly. If this is not possible a community pharmacy is more suitable for your needs.
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Yes, we can provide Controlled Drugs. Controlled drugs and some fridge items will require a signature delivery. These can be sent to any UK address of your choice. If you are not home the courier will leave a card to advise they have attempted delivery.
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Yes, we send insulin in refrigerated packaging on 24 hour tracked delivery, which keeps your medication at the required temperature in transit.
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Yes, we can deal with private prescriptions in a similar way to NHS prescriptions.
Sustainability
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PillTime pouches can be recycled. Although soft plastic waste isn’t yet part of local councils’ waste recycling there are now soft plastics recycling collection points at many supermarkets. They usually accept not only your PillTime pouches but also any other carrier bags, clean food wrappings, or even pet food pouches and crisp packets.
Check in your local area to see if you can drop them off where you shop, and make a real difference to how much goes in your bin.
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Yes! Handling medicines is a tricky thing – the complex chemicals in them have to be kept in a controlled environment so they don’t break down before they are used. So far the industry hasn’t found anything better than plastic to package your pills.
But all the packaging in which we receive your pills – plastic and cardboard – we send for recycling. That’s tens of thousands of plastic blister packs every month that aren’t going to landfill from bins at home. And although it’s still early days for it, many supermarkets have introduced soft plastic collection points where you can recycle the pouches your pills come in, which we’d really encourage you to do.
Never miss a dose with a PillTime pouch
Click to watch our video and discover how simple it is to manage your medications with PillTime.
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Medication pouched and labelled with the dose, date and time
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