Help your local NHS to free up millions of pounds for frontline services by buying your own medicines for short term ailments, over the counter at a pharmacy.
With many common ailments you can care for yourself using medicines bought over the counter at a pharmacy – and you won’t need a prescription. It’s easier, quicker, cheaper.
“We are urging patients to help their NHS by buying some medicines from their local pharmacy or as part of their basic household grocery shop and using them to self-treat minor illnesses rather than seeking a prescription through a GP appointment,” said Dr Laura Hill, the clinical chair and medicines management clinical lead at NHS Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), responsible for buying and planning health services for the local population.
“By encouraging more of our patients to self-care by buying over the counter medicines such as paracetamols and antihistamines, we will have more money to spend on nurses, cancer treatments and GP services. It costs the NHS much more to prescribe these drugs than it does for a patient to buy them. This is not an efficient use of available resources – the NHS belongs to all of us so please use it responsibly.”
You can help your NHS by buying your own medicines for:
- travel sickness
- hayfever and other allergies
- indigestion or upset stomach
- pain and fever
- dry skin
- coughs, colds and sore throats
Pharmacists can assess your symptoms, advise you on how to care for yourself and help you buy the medicine you need. You don’t need an appointment and many pharmacies are open late and at weekends.
Every year in Sussex and East Surrey we spend more than £10 million prescribing medicines and products that are easily available to buy over the counter. A pack of painkillers costs around 30p from a pharmacy, whereas the cost to the NHS is more than £35 (when all costs are included.)
Every £1million saved on unnecessary prescriptions could instead fund around:
- 39 community nurses
- 270 hip replacements
- 66 treatments for breast cancer
Dr Riz Miarkowski, medicines management clinical lead at NHS Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG, added: “We want to educate people on how they can #HelpMyNHS by treating their own short-term minor illnesses and those of their children, with guidance from a local pharmacist if needed. Of course GPs will still be able to prescribe these medicines in exceptional circumstances, such as when patients are experiencing long-term or more complex conditions, but in the majority of cases getting a prescription for travel sickness pills or anti-dandruff shampoo just isn’t necessary.”
People who receive free prescriptions will not automatically be exempt from the guidance.
For patients where the clinician considers that their ability to self-manage is compromised as a consequence of medical, mental health or significant social vulnerability; these patients will continue to receive prescriptions for over the counter items subject to the item being clinically effective.
The NHS belongs to you so please use it responsibly – #HelpMyNHS
For more information on self-care and local NHS services, visit www.sussexhelpmy.nhs.uk