What is Pharmacy First Scotland?
NHS Pharmacy First Scotland will allow community pharmacies to give people expert help for treating conditions such as sore throats, earache and cold sores, along with common clinical conditions such as urinary tract infections (UTI's). Pharmacy teams offers advice, treatment or referral to other healthcare teams if required.
This service will help people access the right care in the right place, without having to go to their GP practice or local Accident and Emergency Department for non-urgent treatment.
Information on how you and your doctor (or other healthcare professional) can work together to decide whether you need a medicine and, if so, which to prescribe, can be found in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland publication Medicines in Scotland: What's the right treatment for me?. This booklet also explains the likely benefits and possible risks of medicines.
You can go to your community pharmacy for advice and medicines for minor illnesses from the Pharmacy First service. Minor illnesses include:
Acne - Allergies - Athlete's Foot - Backache - Blocked or runny nose - Cold sores - Constipation - Cough - Cystitis - (in women) - Diarrhoea - Earache - Eczema - Headache - Head Lice - Haemorrhoids (piles) - Hay Fever - Impetigo - Indigestion - Mouth Ulcers - Pain - Period Pain - Sore Throat - Threadworms - Thrush - Warts - Verrucas
More information is available at NHS Pharmacy First Scotland.
Information about getting the right treatment for common viral illnesses such as colds and coughs without encouraging antibiotic resistance can be found in the NHS publication Get Well Soon Without Antibiotics.
Pharmacy team
Health board pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are becoming more involved in the care of patients in General Practice. Having the pharmacy team working in our surgery provides valuable medicines support, a close link with our community pharmacy teams and allows our GPs to focus their skills and time where they are most needed for patients who have more complex needs.
What does the pharmacy team do?
- Provide expertise on day-to-day medicines
- Give advice for patients taking multiple medications
- Carry out medication reviews and other medicines-related support, including discussing side effects
- Give help for patients with their medicines following a stay in hospital, particularly if there has been a change in regimen
- Answer medications and prescription-related questions
- Produce prescriptions
- Support managing patients’ long-term conditions, such as high blood pressure
When you may get an appointment with one of the pharmacy team
Our pharmacists can provide telephone and face-to-face appointments. The pharmacists, pharmacy technicians or the doctors often review some or all of your medicines and may want to talk with you about the medicines you are currently taking. In the practice we like to review your medicine at least once a year, or more often if needed.
You may have heard people referring to Polypharmacy. It means lots of medicines. A medicine review is particularly useful for people who take a lot of medicines; for these people their medicines review may be called a Polypharmacy Review. Further information is on the NHS Scotland’s website Polypharmacy: Manage medicines or the Managing Multiple Medicines app (available at: Polypharmacy: Manage Medicines)
For information and advice on Covid related symptoms please go to NHS Inform website or call the national coronavirus helpline (0800 028 2816 – open 8am-8pm each day).
The Winter Vaccination Programme 2021
Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership
The Winter Vaccination Programme will start in September 2021.
You can find out if you’re in a priority group eligible for a flu vaccine on NHS inform
We don’t have all the details at the moment but we can tell you:
- You will not get your vaccine at your GP surgery
- You will get your vaccine at a clinic set up to vaccinate large numbers of people quickly
- You will have a pre-booked appointment or be invited to make a booking at a vaccination clinic.
Details on the vaccination clinics are being finalised and when supplies of vaccines become available we will update this page as soon as we have more information.
Please don’t phone the practice as we don’t have any additional information for the moment.
Please keep an eye on our website or NHS inform
Stop the spread of Covid-19 in Edinburgh
Regular testing for people with no COVID-19 symptoms is one of the ways we can all help keep people safe and stop the spread new variants in Edinburgh. Infection rates are rising across Edinburgh, so we’re urging people to keep testing, even if they’ve been vaccinated.
You can order free rapid lateral flow test kits online or by phoning the National Testing Centre on 119.
Almost 1 in 3 people infected with Covid-19 don’t have any of the usual symptoms but are potentially passing on the virus unknowingly to family, friends and others in the community. By getting tested people can find out if they are positive and self-isolate at home to stop spreading the virus to others. People who have been vaccinated are also encouraged to take a test as they may still carry the virus.
You can find out more about community testing on our web pages at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/communitytesting
Please see NHS Lothian ‘s video links in multiple languages about the LFD and PCR tests.
The languages include Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi, Spanish, English1, and Romanian.
English2 [African presenter], Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Bengali, Polish, BSL, Swahili and Kurdish are in the process of being uploaded.
There are four video links for each language version.
The video link titled 'The LFD test for people with no symptoms' encourages people to get tested. It provides information on the LFD test, where to get tested and the support available if they test positive.
2. The video link titled 'What is a PCR test?' provides information on why people should take the PCR test, where to get tested, what support is available if they test positive and how to keep safe.
3. The video link titled 'How to do an LFD test at home' provides audio-visual instructions and a 'follow along' step by step video demonstration of the LFD test, what to do if you are positive, support for self-isolation, where to get further advice and how to stay safe.
4. The video link titled 'How to do a PCR test at home' provides audio-visual instructions and a 'follow along' step by step video demonstration of the PCR test.
The video also explains what to do if you test positive, when to return to work, support for self-isolation, where to get further advice and how to stay safe.
Due to the high service demand during the festive period econsults will be unavailable from week commencing 13th December 2021 until 24th January 2022. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
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MIA - Online Minor Injury Assessment
Remember that NHS services remain available to you when the surgery and pharmacies are closed. For minor injuries, Call MIA to get advice quickly and safely.
Signposts for Health and Other Support
(Site updated 17/01/2022)