General

Over the next month, our pharmacies will be focusing on giving you information to stay hydrated to protect your kidneys.  Did you know that about one in five people admitted to hospital each year as an emergency has acute kidney injury?   What is acute kidney injury? Kidneys are important to our wellbeing. They look after our bodies through the production of urine to get rid of excess water and toxins. Acute kidney injury is a sudden and recent reduction in a person’s kidney function. It is not caused as... Read More

In the media recently, there is strong evidence that vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) protects young women against changes that could lead to cervical cancer, according to a recent study. This report looked at women between the ages of 15 and 26 years. It compared a number of clinical trails and looked at a total of 73,428 participants.  This post tells you about HPV vaccines available on the NHS and privately from our pharmacies.   What is HPV? There are more than 100 different types of HPV, and around 40 types that affect... Read More

The Medicines Regulatory Agency are encouraging us to tell more people how to report a problem. If you have a problem with a medicine or device then you can report this. You should do this as soon as possible. The problems that you might report about medicines include: side effects a medicine doesn’t work properly you think a medicine or medical device is fake or counterfeit a medicine is of a poor quality Anyone can report a problem You do not need to be a healthcare professional to report a... Read More

We read in the media, that the warm weather, is meaning that more people are getting insect bites. A combination of a wet spring with warm weather now means that there are more horse flies about. If you have an insect bite we can help. This post gives you generic information about how you can treat insect bites. Please call into one of our pharmacies for advice that is specific to you. Symptoms of bites and stings Most insect bites and stings are not serious, and will get better within... Read More

This month we are taking part in the Public Health England Active 10 campaign. This post tells you more about the campaign and how you can get involved.   What are the key messages? We all know how important it is to be active. The good news is that you don’t have to do an intense workout to get the benefits of exercise. Walking briskly counts too. Just 10 minutes of brisk walking can get your heart pumping, improve your mood, as well as reduce your risk of long-term conditions.... Read More

This month Public Health England have asked us to promote their Beat the Heat campaign. They have the following advice: Keep in touch Look after yourself, older people and the young. A heatwave can affect anyone, but the most vulnerable people are older people, especially those over 75,babies and young children.  Overheating can make symptoms worse for people who already have some underlying health conditions for example problems with their heart or breathing. People who are physically active – for example, labourers or those doing sports may also be affected more... Read More

Are you struggling with hay fever? If you have tried everything and are still suffering?  This injection for Hayfever may be the treatment for you   What does the treatment involve and how does it work? This is a gluteal injection(muscle at the top of your buttock) of a long acting steroid medicine. The treatment aims to relieve symptoms for three months. Whilst this treatment is not for everyone, it is popular with people with severe symptoms and where other treatments have not worked. Many of our patients return for... Read More

Going on holiday? Need a vaccine? Too busy to get to appointments? Sometimes it can be difficult to fit everything into the day. We offer a bespoke out of hours travel vaccine service to offer maximum convenience for you. We are also able to offer our bespoke out of hours service for other vaccines. Did you know that we offer appointments outside of our usual opening hours? We have a range of Sunday and evening appointments to meet your travel health needs at times that fit around you.   What is... Read More

In the media this week, travellers have been warned to check travel advice when they take medicines abroad. This is because the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have issued a statement on banned medicines abroad . You can read one of the media articles on the BBC website. Which medicines are banned? Please call into one of our pharmacies for specific advice about your travel plans. We offer a travel health service. This includes vaccines required for travel and malaria tablets as well a travel risk assessment. We have heard... Read More

Have you ever wondered how we source your medicines? We have a team of buyers lead by Lorraine, a specialist pharmacy technician. We stock the top 200 medicines used in our pharmacies in our own warehouse. Medicines from our own warehouse are picked by our own staff and sent out regularly to our pharmacies. For other items we use three different wholesalers. This means that our pharmacies get six deliveries a day! So if we order a medicine first thing in the morning then it will often arrive in the... Read More