HEALTHCARE

Self-care for life

With not only Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in November but also Ask Your Pharmacist Week (2 – 9 November) and Self-Care Week (16 – 22 November), it’s time to place community pharmacy and its accessible healthcare professionals at the heart of self-care to encompass all three events, says Bedminster Pharmacy’s Ade Williams

Before appearing as part of the Rankin series of NHS portraits recognising the role of health workers in the coronavirus pandemic response, any internet image search result for me would regularly bring up a less conventional picture –the purple wig was always a conversation point. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions on taste, but I can assure you that the message it seeks to convey carries increased urgency and importance as Covid-19 continues.

This year has morphed from the usual montage of memories to static slides with images and events etched into our minds and hearts –many of them most unwelcome and very distressing. Face masks, PPE, toilet roll towers! There are also less visible images that continue to cause great concern for many healthcare professionals.

It is a sobering fact that as a result of Covid-19, fewer people have been referred for cancer investigations, and survival is likely to have been badly impacted. This is a major tragedy. In the last few years, so much effort has gone into increasing screening uptake for bowel, breast and cervical cancer alongside improving all cancer diagnosis and treatment. Historically the UK’s cancer survival rate has lagged behind the best-performing countries in Europe and in response to this, the 2019 NHS long-term plan laid out ambitious aims for three quarters of all cancers to be detected at an early stage and 55,000 more people surviving cancer for five years, each year, by 2028.

The NHS prioritised the recovery of cancer services as all services resumed during the pandemic yet there remains a worrying drop in referrals for investigations. As an NHS clinician working across primary care settings: GP surgery and community pharmacy, I sadly have a unique insight. The scale of psychological trauma from Covid19 pandemic and illness is slowly emerging, with a large number of people affected. We know that many people are reluctant to visit any healthcare premises, including GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals. At Bedminster Pharmacy, we sometimes see the anxiety boiling over into irrational behaviour and even panic attacks. Bearing in mind the many ways our lives have been disrupted while we still face continuing uncertainty about our future, experiencing a profound sense of anxiety and a feeling of being continually in danger (hypervigilance) may settle in unnoticed.

But crucial to cancer survival is early diagnosis. Put simply; nothing increases your chances of beating cancer more than getting it diagnosed early, so that any appropriate treatment can start. People delaying seeking advice is worrying. The type of symptoms we are talking about include: unexplained bleeding (rectal, vaginal, bruising); an unusual lump or swelling anywhere on the body; unexplained weight loss; very heavy night sweats; unexplained body pain or ache; unusual breast changes such as any change in the size, shape or feel of a breast, including any nipple or skin changes; coughing up blood; blood in urine or stool; mouth or tongue ulcer that lasts longer than three weeks; a change in bowel habits, such as constipation or looser Ade and team go purple for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

or more frequent stools. If you have any of these, kindly speak with your doctor or pharmacist right away.

It may not be anything but for peace of mind, just speak with us. Remember it is never a bother and no query is too small. Sadly during Covid-19, pancreatic cancer, like other cancers, has not stood still –decimating lives and preying more on those socio-economically and institutionally disadvantaged. The key message I will share alongside Dr Ellie Freeman and Dr Hilary Jones –both, like myself, clinical ambassadors of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Charity –is around spotting early signs. It has some non-specific symptoms such as pain in the back or stomach area, which may come and go at first and is often worse when lying down or after eating. Even in our new socially distanced world, we must continue to be life-savers, encouraging anyone we are concerned about to speak with NHS professionals.

Now is the time to place community pharmacy and its NHS healthcare professionals –the most accessible in the UK –at the heart of self-care, a belief cemented by the profession’s frontline response to the coronavirus pandemic and continuing reassuring support to patients. We will be joining other healthcare professionals and NHS organisations across the country, coming together to embed support and empower people to care for their physical and mental health during the Self-Care Week, taking place 16 –22 November under the banner ‘Live Self-Care For Life’. The emphasis is on supporting and encouraging people to protect themselves and others. Expect to see online events, Twitter chats and posters with key messages.

Throughout the outbreak, pharmacies have been at the forefront of providing medicines and self-care advice in our communities –something which has helped re-shape public attitudes to the valuable role they play while emphasising the importance of preserving the NHS. This year’s Ask Your Pharmacist Week campaign, 2 – 9 November, will be themed ‘Your Local Pharmacy in the NHS Family’. The collective trauma ripping through our country must not stop us preserving life and dignity. Our NHS is very important but always remember that enhancing health and wellbeing is a partnership effort involving all of us working as a community. ■ • Follow Ade on Twitter: @adewilliamsnhs or @bedminsterpharm