A Surrey pharmacist has urged people in the county to cut down on medicine waste, which costs the NHS locally about £12m annually, a care board says.
Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB) said it spends roughly £162m on issuing 16 million prescriptions each year but added that an estimated 1.2 million of those go unused and end up being thrown away.
It said the medicines cannot be reused or recycled and often end up in landfill or even polluting the waterways.
Pharmacist Khatidja Kureeman asked people to check their supplies before ordering more to help cut down on waste.