Pharmacy Advice
Pharmacy First Scotland
NHS Pharmacy First Scotland is an NHS service provided by your local community pharmacy.
Pharmacy First provides support for people living in Scotland. This service allows community pharmacies to give patients expert advice and help in treating common conditions and minor illnesses. Pharmacy First plays a pivotal role in helping patients access the right care in the right place without having to go to their general practice or local A&E unnecessarily. If you have a minor illness, a pharmacy is the first place you should go for advice.
You do not usually need an appointment and you can go to any pharmacy.
Your local pharmacist or a trained member of the pharmacy team will give you advice and provide medicine if needed. They may need to refer you to another healthcare professional such as your GP practice, dentist, optometrist or another NHS service if they feel your condition needs further investigation or more specialist care.
Your pharmacist can advise you about conditions such as: (click on the blue word to open link to more information)
Allergies Athlete's foot Atopic eczema
Backache Blocked or runny nose
Cellulitis Cold sores Conjunctivitis Constipation Coughs Cystitis
Headaches Head lice and nits Haemorrhoids (piles) Hay fever
Impetigo Indigestion Insect bites and stings
Pain Period pain
Thrush
Thrush
If you are female aged between 16 and 60 you can buy antifungal medicine from pharmacies if you have had thrush diagnosed in the past and you know the symptoms.
For more details of symptoms of thrush please click on the link to the NHS website below:
Hayfever
If you suffer hayfever symptoms and are registered with a GP practice you can use the Pharmacy First service offered by local community pharmacies. Your local pharmacist will give you advice and provide medicine to treat your hayfever symptoms free of charge. For children under 1 year old with allergies or hayfever symptoms please book a telephone or video appointment with a GP.
You usually only need to see your GP if:
- you can't control your symptoms with over-the-counter medications, or you have troublesome side effects caused by the medication
- you are experiencing persistent complications of hay fever, such as worsening asthma or repeated episodes of sinusitis
- the pattern of your symptoms is unusual, such as occurring during the winter or only at your workplace (it is likely that another substance other than pollen is responsible, and further testing will be needed to confirm this)
For more information and self-help with hay-fever please click on the links below:
https://www.nhsinform.scot/self-help-guides/self-help-guide-hay-fever
https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/immune-system/hay-fever