NHS Scotland Pharmacy First
Pharmacy First was introduced a number of years ago to replace the "Minor Ailments" service.
This service has been gradually expanded and includes the conditions listed below. The service is open to anyone who is registered with a GP in Scotland, or who permanently lives in Scotland, and is intended to allow us to prescribe, advise or refer you to a GP for the condition you present with.
There are a number of regulations we have to follow for every consultation - a few are listed here :
We have a dedicated quiet consultation area. If you feel this is a more appropriate place to discuss any issues you wish to speak about then please just ask us and we can fix this for you.
We only prescribe when the PATIENT IS PRESENT - we CANNOT PRESCRIBE if the patient is not present in the pharmacy (except in very exceptional circumstances e.g. patient with diarrhoea or confirmed Covid, who we would rather stayed at home). This is for patient safety and to ensure we can question you to make sure you are getting the best treatment we can offer. Phone consultations and photos of rashes etc. are rarely good enough especially if there is something we need to look at to decide the best course of action.
We have a limited list of items we can choose from - but this is common in prescribing and means all the things we can give you are effective and offer good value to the NHS.
The service is for conditions you have AT THAT MOMENT - not ones you may think you are going to get.
The service is intended for treatment of conditions for a limited period only, it is not intended to treat you for a long period of time. Depending on the condition we will decide when it is more appropriate for you to attend your medical practice for ongoing treatment if we think this is required.
If you have been treated by a GP or other prescriber for a condition, or if the presenting symptoms are side effects of another prescribed medicine, we cannot then continue treatment as it is up to the original prescriber to look into this and review the treatment they have given you - there are many other details we will consider before deciding between advice, referral or giving you as medication, but these points above are the main ones.
The conditions we can treat are viewable on this NHS link - but contact us for any queries you may have.
Other conditions we can treat are :
Impetigo - infected skin lesions.
Shingles - if rash is new and depends on rash location.
Infected insect bites or nail bed infections - where poison is evident or cellulitis is present.
Urinary tract infections (females only) - depending on many factors of the symptoms.
Sore throats - if presented early under certain circumstances we can give anti-biotic treatment