Urgent Medical Help

HEALTH & SAFETY

URGENT MEDICAL HELP

If you are resident in the UK, NHS England has put on place a new initiative to assist you in obtaining emergency medication when travelling away from home.

ALWAYS remember, some prescribed essential medication may be time sensitive and cannot help you if you leave it at home!

ALWAYS KEEP YOUR DOSETTE BOX FULL and Make sure it is the first thing in your overnight bag.

(Pharmacists normally have several options of dosette boxes available to suit your needs)

NHS England is supporting the deployment of prescribing pharmacists in Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Assessment Service (IUC CAS) contact centres and in NHS11 1 services to help reduce the pressure on urgent and emergency care and general practice.

Pharmacists working in the Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) Pharmacists Programme will work as part of the multidisciplinary team as an expert resource. The work will involve handling medicines-related enquiries and issues, undertaking clinical assessment and treatment of minor ailments and prescribing where appropriate, prescribing for repeat prescription requests, and providing self-care advice.

(taken from the NHS website)

The NHS/GOVERNMENT UPDATE

Pharmacists working in local practices within the NHS UK remit, have been charged by the government, to provide more and more facilities.

The next section is an update of the current scheme. Your GP or Pharmacist will be able to explain it more thoroughly if necessary.

The new initiative:

HEALTH & SAFETY (cont)

I understand some people may not have had particularly good experiences in the past of needing to use 111. However, a lot of money has been invested to help amend this situation, including involvement from our local pharmacists.

If you call 111, out of normal surgery hours, because you have been unable to get a standard GP appointment even from an NHS ‘Walk-In’ facility, the 111 online practitioner will ask you to describe your symptoms.

Your current medication details, will also be requested and checked, to enable the practitioner to raise a relevant prescription and send it electronically to a local pharmacy, close to your current location.

You, the patient, will then need to go to that named pharmacy, where the pharmacist will check your vital signs, BP temp etc.

Once the pharmacist has completed his checks and agrees the new prescription, it will be issued.

The pharmacist has the authority to make any further necessary adjustments and such information will be referred back to your GP.

However, should the pharmacist consider it essential for you to see a GP or indeed be referred to hospital, they will assist with this too.

Today, many pharmacies may even make you a cup of tea if appropriate, the panacea to many ailments :))

TO RECAP:

1. ALL NHS pharmacies in England, have online access to your prescribed repeat prescription requirements and will be able to offer you an emergency supply of essential medication.

2. NB In an emergency situation, away from home, if a prescription has NOT been issued by your registered doctor, an additional prescription will be treated as a ‘PRIVATE PRESCRIPTION’ and a charge will be made.

3. Remember, even out of hours, you should always try to use your regular pharmacy, as you would normally be offered an emergency supply of essential medication, at no charge.

4. For a more detailed explanation see www.neneccg.nhs.uk