Your local pharmacy this winter
Your local pharmacy this winter
Winter is the busiest time of year for health services in Redbridge, and it is also when it can feel hardest to get seen. Your local pharmacy can often help sooner than you might expect, and for more than you might expect.
There are 370 community pharmacies across north east London. Many have extended opening hours and none of them need an appointment.
You do not always need a GP appointment
Through the NHS Pharmacy First service, a pharmacist can assess and, where appropriate, treat seven common conditions without you needing to see a GP: sinusitis, sore throat, earache in children, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women aged 16 to 64. The consultation is free. You may pay the standard NHS prescription charge for any medicine, unless you are exempt.
A pharmacist can also give advice on coughs, colds, minor infections, aches and pains and other uncomplicated conditions, and will tell you if you need to see a GP, call NHS 111 or go somewhere else instead.
No appointment is needed. You can walk in.
Winter vaccinations
Many pharmacies across Redbridge offer flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccinations to people who are eligible. RSV is a common cause of serious winter chest infections, and the vaccine is less well known than flu and COVID, so it is worth asking whether you qualify.
If you have just come out of hospital
Pharmacies run a Discharge Medicines Service. If your medicines have changed during a hospital stay, your pharmacist can go through them with you, check nothing has been missed and answer your questions. This is one of the most useful and least used things a pharmacy does.
Other services
Depending on the pharmacy, you may also be able to access stop smoking support, sexual health services including STI testing and condoms, needle exchange and naloxone, latent TB testing, and Healthy Start vitamins for pregnant women and young children. Not every pharmacy offers every service, so it is worth ringing ahead.
Some pharmacies also offer services you pay for, such as travel clinics, ear syringing, health screening and some vaccinations not covered by the NHS. Ask what is NHS-funded and what is not before you book.
Why this matters
People tell us regularly how difficult it can be to get a GP appointment, particularly over winter. Pharmacies are often closer, open longer and quicker to reach, but a lot of people still do not know what their pharmacy can do. If more of us know where to go first, we all get seen faster.
Tell us how it goes
If you use your local pharmacy this winter, we would like to hear about it. Your experiences help us understand what is working locally and where things need to improve.
