Winter Health Services
One fifth of GP consultations are related to minor ailments, including cold and flu symptoms, which costs the NHS around £370 million a year [1]. Suffering from a cold and cough drives many to pharmacy over the winter period, but these minor ailments rarely need a visit to the doctor or out of hours services.
Why provide a Winter Health Service in your pharmacy?
- Community pharmacy plays an essential role in supporting people to stay well over the winter months and are often the place to turn to when feeling unwell.
- Pharmacists and their teams are experts in providing advice and recommending treatments that are inexpensive to help reduce the discomfort of minor illnesses such as colds and coughs.
- Expanding your service portfolio has many advantages – it will not only act as an additional income generator but customers will recognise the excellent service and access your pharmacy again.
- Supports the NHS long term plan.
Setting up your Winter Health Service
We provide a number of resources to help you set up your service:
PGDs and downloadable resources
We work with PharmaDoctor to offer members a range of PGDs to support you to offer treatment for a range of winter ailments including ear infection, cold sores and sore throats.
Download print ready A3 poster
Download print ready A4 poster
An interactive profitability calculator to estimate the potential profitability of new services for your pharmacy.
Sore Throat Test and Treat Service
We have a range of pre-recorded webinars, including how to set up a Winter Health Service, please see our webinar page for the full range of resources available.
Training and health promotion support
Counter Excellence module: Winter health
Pharmacy Excellence module: Winter health
Pharmacy Excellence module: Sore throat test and treat service: collecting a throat swab
Download health promotion briefing sheet
[1] www.pharmacymagazine.co.uk/winter-ailments-help-cut-the-queues