Take sick children to pharmacies first

This week there as been a public health campaign to urge parents to take sick children to the pharmacy first. You may have read reports on the BBC, Mumsnet or newspapers.

NHS England said visits to GPs and A&E for these “self-treatable” conditions, like stomach ache, cost £850m a year.

NHS England is urging people to visit their local pharmacist first in order to help save the service money and free up time for the sickest patients.

Did you know that 18 million GP appointments and 2.1 million visits to A&E are for conditions that that could be seen by a pharmacist?

What can our pharmacists do?

Our pharmacists are well placed to help you with the following.

• Advise on the safe use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines.
• Give advice about a range of common conditions and minor injuries, such as sore throat, coughs, colds and flu
• Advise on whether you need to see a GP.
• Offer healthy lifestyle advice.
• Provide private vaccinations and travel service.

Pharmacists at our Ruddington, Cotmanhay and Kirk Gate Newark pharmacies are trained to treat an extended range of ear, nose and throat conditions. This means that they will be able to assess and examine you or your child and provide prescription only medicines. Where appropriate, this will include antibiotics. We anticipate that this service will start around 5th March. We will give you more information shortly.

When to do I need to see my GP

We treat as many patients as we can in our pharmacies. Our pharmacists will be able to advise you on when you need to seek advice from other healthcare professionals. For example if a child has a persistently high temperature.