Two campaigns are speaking up for community pharmacy and attempting to reduce the pressure on emergency services. Charlotte Rixon reports

NHS England is seeking to improve the public’s understanding of the advice available at community pharmacies through an eight-week campaign, while Pharmacy Voice has launched a two-year campaign to drive awareness of the sector’s public health roles.

First port of call

‘The earlier, the better’ is NHS England’s first public awareness campaign and aims to reduce the number of people requiring emergency care by encouraging the public to seek advice promptly for health problems from the most appropriate source.

It includes advice for staying healthy during the winter and tips on managing common ailments, together with information on where to seek help for illness, with community pharmacies cited as ‘a good first port of call’. Carers and people aged over 60 are the main targets of the campaign, which involves outdoor, radio and print advertising. Pharmacies have been sent packs with posters and countertop displays.

Challenging traditional views

The campaign coincides with ‘Dispensing Health’, a longer term initiative from Pharmacy Voice, which, said chief executive Rob Darracott, will “challenge the traditional views of community pharmacy as simply dispensers of medicines”.

The campaign follows a YouGov poll, which showed that less than half (48 per cent) of Britons realise that pharmacy teams can advise on minor ailments, while under a third (31 per cent) know that they can provide healthy living advice

Key aims

The initiative has four key aims, and is calling on the public, healthcare professionals and politicians to help achieve them by May 2015. It states that community pharmacy should be seen as:

• A dispenser of health, not just medicines
• A gateway for good health (while general practice focuses on ill health)
• A part of the solution for relieving A&E pressures
• The first place for advice on minor ailments.

“Community pharmacy is perfectly positioned to take the strain from GPs and A&E departments that are bursting at the seams,” said Dr Michael Dixon, GP chair of NHS Alliance. “We need to work together so that the public access the right services, at the right place and at the right time.” To find out more, visit: www.dispensinghealth.org