Pharmacy First Minor Ailments Service
The Pharmacy First Minor Ailments Service is primarily designed as a “walk in” service so that patients exempt from prescription charges of all ages can access self-care advice for the treatment of minor ailments and, where appropriate, be supplied with over the counter medicines, without the requirement to attend their GP practice for an appointment and prescription.
The rules of access are as follows:
- The scheme is available to patients exempt from prescription charges who are registered with a participating General Practice in Dudley, Sandwell & West Birmingham and Wolverhampton CCG areas.
- Visits are limited to six times in a twelve-month period.
- The scheme is only for the treatment of a current common ailment and not to restock medicines.
- The patient will need to attend the pharmacy personally.
- The patient will need to bring their NHS number with them for the scheme to operate.
Conditions that can be treated for either under 16’s (U16), over 16’s (O16), or both include:
| Acute cough | Acute fever (U16) | Acute Pain/Earache/Headache/Temperature (O16) | Athlete’s foot |
| Bacterial conjunctivitis | Bites, stings and allergies | Cold sores | Colds and ‘flu |
| Constipation | Cystitis (O16) | Diarrhoea | Dry skin/simple eczema (U16) |
| Dermatitis/allergic rashes (U16) | Earache | Earwax | Hay fever |
| Haemorrhoids (O16) | Heartburn/indigestion (O16) | Infant decongestion | Mouth ulcers & teething |
| Nappy rash | Scabies | Sore throats (O16) | Sprains & strains ( O16) |
| Sunburn (U16) | Threadworms | Thrush (oral & vaginal) | Verrucas and warts |
Where to find advice on self-care
Non-urgent advice:
You can also find more help on a range of health problems, including the services available to you on the following:
NHS Website: www.nhs.uk/
Healthy Sandwell: www.healthysandwell.co.uk/our-services/
Sandwell & West B’ham CCG: sandwellandwestbhamccg.nhs.uk/self-care
Self-Care Forum: www.selfcareforum.org/resources/patient-portal/
NHS 111 Online
If you have an urgent health concern you can either use the NHS 111 phone service or access the NHS www web service (111.nhs.uk/).
The NHS 111 Online service is completely free, user friendly and available 24/7.