Start with your pharmacist

Pharmacists are highly trained and yet we don’t always think “can my pharmacist help?” when we need medical advice. The Government has now woken up to this. They are very keen that we use our pharmacists more instead of funnelling all our health concerns via our GPs.

Pharmacy First

As the weather turns colder and we inevitably start to get those winter sniffles it’s worth knowing about the Pharmacy First initiative. Pharmacy First means that your local pharmacist can assess you for a range common conditions. It includes the supply of appropriate medicines for 7 common conditions. These include earache, sore throat, and urinary tract infections, and aim to address health issues before they get worse.

Advice from your pharmacy

Community pharmacies can offer a more convenient way to access healthcare for a range of other health and lifestyle matters. These include support with healthy eating, exercise, stopping smoking, monitoring your blood pressure, contraception, flu and covid vaccinations.

Annual Medicines Review

It’s easy to suddenly find yourself taking a whole raft of different medications. Things get added along the way. Older people are particularly vulnerable to poly-pharmacy – that’s being prescribed four or more medications. Up to 50% of all medicines for long term conditions are not taken as intended and can lead to hospital admissions from falls and confusion.

An Age UK report published in 2019 called ‘More Harm than Good’ states that there was a 53% increase in the number of emergency admissions due to adverse drug reactions between 2008-2015. And that almost two million people over the age of 65 are likely be taking at least seven prescribed medicines. This number doubles to approaching four million for those taking at least five medicines.

Your community pharmacist offers a free annual Medicine Usage Review for all patients who have more than one prescribed medication. The pharmacist can

• help you to find out more about the medicines you are taking
• Pick up any problems you are having with your medicines
• improve the effectiveness of your medicines. There may be easier ways to take them. Or you may find you need fewer medicines than before
• Get better value for the NHS – making sure that your medicines are right.

Your pharmacist can’t change or discontinue medicines but they will liaise with your GP to discuss any concerns and make recommendations.

A Medicine Usage Review can be particularly helpful if you have been discharged recently from hospital as often medicines are changed during a stay in hospital. A review is also really useful if you feel you are experiencing side effects. Do contact your pharmacist if this would be helpful for you.

If you need support to access your pharmacy or other health services our team are very happy to support you.  We can accompany you to any appointments. Do contact Home & Company to discuss.