Non-eligible patients

Patients who are aware of the Pharmacy First service may not realise that antibiotic supply isn’t an inevitable outcome of the consultation, so pharmacy teams should be ready to help those who are not eligible but have symptoms of sore throat, with self care and OTC advice and product recommendations.

The first thing is to reassure them that acute sore throat usually only lasts for about a week and the majority of people get better without the need for antibiotics. This could also be an opportunity to talk about the increasing danger of antibiotic resistance as well as that, even if supplied, on average antibiotics only reduce the duration of symptoms by about 16 hours.

Smoking will tend to exacerbate a sore throat, so if the patient smokes this is a good opportunity to offer advice and information about quitting.

If the person uses steroid inhalers they can be reminded that these can cause hoarseness and also candidal infections of the throat and mouth. Generally, this happens at high doses and can be prevented by rinsing the mouth with water after using the inhaler.

Cold, catarrh and cough with a sore throat, along with general aches and pains, are also signs of a minor self-limiting viral infection, giving pharmacy teams the opportunity to remind patients about self care options with OTC analgesics and medicated lozenges to manage these symptoms alongside their sore throat.