{"id":25854,"date":"2018-02-28T15:02:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T15:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=25854"},"modified":"2018-03-07T11:07:28","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T11:07:28","slug":"parents-urged-think-pharmacist-first-minor-illness-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/28\/parents-urged-think-pharmacist-first-minor-illness-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents urged to think pharmacist first for minor illness in their children"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>A major new public health campaign urges parents to consult a pharmacist first for minor illness, instead of GP or A&amp;E<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>18\u00a0million GP appointments and\u00a02.1\u00a0million visits to A&amp;E for self-treatable conditions cost the NHS \u00a3850 million\u00a0per\u00a0year<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Using a pharmacy for\u00a0minor health concerns eases pressures on GPs<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Millions of parents could get more convenient and timely expert advice if their child has a minor illness by opting to go to their local pharmacist first instead of the GP.<\/p>\n<p>Research for the NHS shows just 6%\u00a0of mums and dads with children under the age of five would consider seeking help about a minor health concern from a high street pharmacist in the first instance. More than a third (35%) would opt for an appointment with their GP while 5% of those questioned would choose emergency care as their first point of call.<\/p>\n<p>This is despite an overwhelming majority\u00a0of adults (79%)\u00a0saying they are aware that pharmacists are qualified healthcare professionals who can give advice on most common illnesses which includes when and where to seek advice for more serious conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The NHS is urging\u00a0more parents to use their pharmacy first in a move which could help free up GP time for sicker patients and help save the NHS around \u00a3850\u00a0million each year as well as save time for busy families.<\/p>\n<p>Around 95% of people live within a 20 minute walk of a local community pharmacy, making pharmacists extremely accessible and a valuable first port of call for minor health concerns such as coughs, colds, tummy troubles or teething.<\/p>\n<p>Around 18 million GP appointments and 2.1 million visits to A&amp;E are for self-treatable conditions &#8211; such as coughs and tummy troubles &#8211; at a cost of more than \u00a3850 million each year to the NHS. This is the equivalent of more than 220,000 hip replacements or 880,000 cataract operations.<\/p>\n<p>The NHS nationally is working with community pharmacies to increase the range of patient services they provide including asthma audits and flu vaccinations and to promote the clinical expertise available from the pharmacy team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr Bruce Warner, Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England said:\u00a0<\/strong><em>\u201cPharmacists are highly trained NHS health professionals who are able to offer clinical advice and effective treatments for a wide range of minor health concerns right there and then. They can assess symptoms and recommend the best course of treatment or simply provide reassurance, for instance when a minor illness will get better on its own with a few days\u2019 rest. However, if symptoms suggest it\u2019s something more serious, they have the right clinical training to ensure people get the help they need.\u200b We want to help the public get the most effective use of these skilled clinicians who are available every day of the week.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The call for people, in particular the five million parents of children under five, to use their local pharmacist first for advice is part of the Stay Well Pharmacy campaign.\u00a0It is backed by pharmacists and Netmums, the UK\u2019s biggest parenting website.<\/p>\n<p>A survey carried out as part of the campaign reveals that the proportion of adults questioned who would get advice from the pharmacist for minor health concerns is only 16%. This went down to just 6% for parents of young children.<\/p>\n<p>While 77% of people agree they trust advice from their pharmacist,\u00a0there are misconceptions about the level of\u00a0service\u00a0this highly trained group of healthcare professionals\u00a0can offer in terms of advice and expertise.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0quarter\u00a0of people\u00a0(26%)\u00a0feel it is difficult to discuss health concerns in private\u00a0with a\u00a0pharmacist,\u00a0with many not being aware that more than nine out of 10 pharmacies have a private consultation room. Nearly a quarter (24%) feel they would need to visit the GP\u00a0anyway, so go\u00a0direct to the doctor in the first instance.\u00a0However, NHS England found that among adults who\u00a0have\u00a0received\u00a0advice\u00a0from a pharmacist\u00a0in the past six months for themselves or their child, two thirds (66%)\u00a0found\u00a0it useful\u00a0and less than a fifth (19%)\u00a0needed to go to the GP\u00a0afterwards.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Ruksana Rohim, a mum of one, said: <\/strong><em>\u201cI regularly use my local pharmacy when my child has a minor illness like a cold or tooth ache and to help other family members manage their long term health conditions. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>I have developed a really good relationship with my local pharmacy. It\u2019s close to home and the team there are always so helpful. They are healthcare experts so the advice they give puts my mind at rest. The fact that I don\u2019t need to book an appointment helps a great deal when I need quick, immediate advice for a minor health issue.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><strong>Meera Thakrar, Community Pharmacist\u00a0who features in the \u2018Stay Well Pharmacy\u2019 TV advert, adds:\u00a0<\/strong><em>\u201cWe understand that it\u2019s worrying when a young child is poorly,\u00a0and for parents it can be particularly distressing. We urge the public to choose to visit their local pharmacy first for minor health concerns when they want to see a highly\u00a0trained\u00a0specialist who is qualified to assess symptoms and who is always available without an appointment to offer clinical advice and support. And if symptoms suggest it\u2019s something more serious, we have the right clinical training to ensure people get any further help they need.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For more information search\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/protect-eu.mimecast.com\/s\/MahNCJWJtBmxKRTK9fhv\">NHS.uk<\/a>\u00a0where you can also locate\u00a0your\u00a0local pharmacy services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A major new public health campaign urges parents to consult a pharmacist first for minor illness, instead of GP or A&amp;E 18\u00a0million GP appointments and\u00a02.1\u00a0million visits to A&amp;E for self-treatable conditions cost the NHS \u00a3850 million\u00a0per\u00a0year Using a pharmacy for\u00a0minor health concerns eases pressures on GPs Millions of parents could get more convenient and timely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,3,112],"tags":[524,845],"class_list":["post-25854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news","category-top-stories","tag-nhs","tag-pharmacist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}