Residents across Bath are being urged to take advantage of pharmacies in the area for advice on a range of illnesses and treatment options for common conditions.
The Pharmacy First scheme means people feeling under the weather from one of the seven conditions covered are able to seek help from a community pharmacy without having to make an appointment with their GP.
Conditions that pharmacists can offer prescription medicine for are:
- Impetigo (aged 1 year and over)
- Infected insect bites (aged 1 year and over)
- Earache (aged 1 to 17 years)
- Sore throat (aged 5 years and over)
- Sinusitis (aged 12 years and over)
- Urinary tract infections (women aged 16 to 64 years)
- Shingles (aged 18 years and over)
The reminder for people to think Pharmacy First coincides with this year’s Ask Your Pharmacist Week, which runs until Monday 10th November.
Helen Wilkinson, Community Pharmacy Integration Lead, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, said: “Pharmacies do a lot more than just managing patients’ repeat prescriptions.
“Each of our 130 or so sites are headed up by a skilled team of trained health and care professionals, each of whom can offer advice on medicines, share information on how to manage illness at home and carry out private consultations for minor illnesses.
“Pharmacy teams can also offer prescription medicines for a range of common conditions, some of which become more prevalent during the colder winter months, without patients needing to make an appointment with their GP practice first.
“Speeding up the time it takes to provide patients with the care and treatment they need helps people to start their recovery sooner, while also freeing up valuable GP time, which can then be used for seeing patients with more urgent symptoms.”
People can find details of their nearest pharmacy, such as opening times and the services being provided, though the NHS website at https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/pharmacy/find-a-pharmacy/.
