Take three steps before visiting your GP

In the media this week, the Royal College of GP’s is urging patients to consider three steps before visiting their GP. These are:

• Speak to your pharmacist.
• Consult a reputable online source of information.
• Consider if you are able to resolve the problem yourself.

Speak to your pharmacist

You can speak to a pharmacist in one of our pharmacies. There is no charge for advice. Where possible we will treat you using an NHS scheme. This means that those who are exempt from NHS charges may not need to pay for over the counter medicines recommended by our pharmacists.

Online information

Online information can be mixed so it is important that you choose a reputable website. We use the following websites in our pharmacies.

• NHS Choices This website contains information on local services and health conditions
• Patient.co.uk This is website has evidenced based information on medical conditions. It is the source of information that our regulator uses, when assessing pharmacists in their registration assessment.
• Travel Health Pro This is the website that we use when give travel vaccines and malaria tablets. Your pharmacist might email you information on your travel destination ahead of your appointment.

Can you resolve your problem yourself?

Think about life-style changes that you could make to resolve your symptoms. All of our pharmacies now carry information about the changes that we can all make to minimise our risks of becoming unwell.

The Royal College of GPs state that “Even if 5% of people paused before reaching for the phone… that would save 50,000 appointments, perhaps freeing up a bit of space for those who need them,”

So if you have concerns about your health please call into one of our pharmacies for advice.