This is a talking point published in the Hereford Times on September 19.

Dr Will Taylor, chief medical officer, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire

COMMUNITY pharmacies play a vital role in society, providing access to medicines, healthcare advice and a range of other health services with an estimated 1.6 million people visiting more than 10,000 pharmacies in England every day!

Pharmacies are also often open long hours when other healthcare professionals are unavailable so are helpful for all people who may live in towns or more rural parts of Herefordshire.

Community pharmacists are experts in medicines and managing minor conditions. In a national poll earlier this year 75 per cent of people said they wanted to see pharmacies offering more healthcare services in addition to their traditional dispensing role such as treating sore throats or urinary tract infections, and now they are.

The Government and the NHS have now backed pharmacists to provide a new NHS Pharmacy First service which was rolled out earlier this year.

One-hundred-and-14 community pharmacies across Herefordshire andWorcestershire have signed up to support people in certain age groups seeking help for sore throats, earache in children, sinusitis, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles, and urinary tract infections in women giving advice and, if needed, NHS medicines.

If you have symptoms that suggest you may have one of these conditions, you can now visit a pharmacy and be offered a consultation with the pharmacist and these are undertaken in a private consultation room.

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The pharmacist will advise you if they consider you need additional advice and NHS prescription charges will apply if you normally pay for medicines supplied on prescription.

By thinking Pharmacy First, it is easier and quicker to get the help by passing the need to book an appointment with the GP practice.

The new service is part of a wider expansion of healthcare services to give people more choice about their healthcare and it is hoped that the pharmacy service will be expanded to include more conditions in the future.