NHS Minor Ailment Service
A service for people who did not pay for their prescriptions before prescription fees were abolished, including children.
A service that saves you having to make an appointment with a doctor simply to get a prescription for a minor complaint.
ANYONE can go to a pharmacy for advice, or to buy a medicine for a minor illness….
…..BUT this particular Community Pharmacy Service means that if your pharmacist thinks you need a medicine, they can give it to you without you having to pay for it, and without you having to get a prescription from your doctor.
What sort of minor ailments can the community pharmacist treat?
ACNE, ATHLETE’S FOOT, BACKACHE, COLD SORES, CONSTIPATION, COUGHS, DIARRHOEA, EARACHE, ECZEMA, ALLERGIES, HAEMORRHOIDS (PILES), HAYFEVER, HEADACHE, HEAD LICE, INDIGESTION, MOUTH ULCERS, NASAL CONGESTION, PAIN, PERIOD PAIN, THRUSH, SORE THROAT, THREDWORMS, WARTS, VERRUCAE
To use this service, you:
- MUST be registered with a GP Surgery in Scotland
- DON’T live in a nursing or residential care home
How do I register to use this service?
- Go along to a community pharmacy of your choice, at any time.
- You can only register with one community pharmacy for this service, but you can change.
- The pharmacist will ask for some personal details and will check whether you are entitled to free prescriptions.
- You may be asked for proof of your entitlement to free prescriptions e.g maternity status or medical exemption etc
- You will be asked to sign a form for the service and there will be separate forms for each member of your family, including children.
- If your pharmacist thinks your symptoms should be seen by a GP they will advise you to make a GP appointment
Other Community Pharmacy Services
- Run Out of Medication?: If you or a member of your family has run out of their regular repeat medication and your GP surgery is closed then contact your local pharmacy. Your community pharmacist can, in certain circumstances, provide you with a supply of your regular repeat medication. This is at the discretion of the pharmacist and should only be in ‘one off’ situations. There are some medicines that the pharmacist is not allowed to supply and this service can not be used to obtain a supply of methadone or any other substitution therapy.
- On Holiday?: If you are on holiday from another part of the UK, or your regular pharmacy is closed, a pharmacist can still make an emergency supply of your usual medicines.