I recently paid £5 for a small tube of eye ointment.A friend who likes to remind me im 61 told me about the above.Register with your local pharmacy for minor illness and complaints treatments.
Im sure many of our posters will be aware but full details are at www.scotland.gov.uk or www.hris.org.uk
Possibly Scotland only.

Yes thats correct as I have heard people talking about this. I think it is only open to people who are over 60 though. Does it mean that you will get things free that you usually have to pay for?? If that is what it is for then I think that would be good as prices of some treatments are very dear. I bought hay faver tablets last year and they set me back £8!!

I think we need more doctors rather than usng pharmacists. If we had more doctors then we wouldnt need this service. I wonder if the pharmacy gets money for providing this service or do they just get more business because more people will come to them??

Scotsman next time you are in the pharmacy ask for the leaflet and fill it out.Pharmacy will do the rest.
I think the idea is to take the pressure off doctors and aye your hayfever treatment would be free.

My kids are already on it, wish we had it when my oldest was wee and had bad colic, cost a fortune in infacol.

As Jupiter says, the aim of the service is to take pressure off GPs by having people with minor ailments treated by the pharmacist. People with things like colds, sair heids, and tummy upsets can be shunted past their local surgery, even although the cold might be bird flu, the sair heid a forerunner of a stroke and the tummy upset diverticultis. Coming soon tae yer local pharmacy - the dae it yersel amputation kit.

Are you suggesting that everyone with the slightest ailment should visit his GP ? Many people, myself included, would have to take up residence at the health centre.

Regarding the tube of eye ointment I bought.It came in a long box when opened revealed a wee tube with 1 gramme of ointment@£5.I had to do a calculation and that works out just over
£140 per ounce.(Ill stand corrected as my sums arent the best)
I thought that was absolutely incredible.In fact I would have shed a tear but my eye was too sore.

Lets face it, they hahve been using chemists for yearsto dispense treatment. methadone is distributed by chemists. They receive a fee for the service. They also deliver a quit smoking service.

On the subject of methadone. A friend of mine has a daughter who is a pharmacist. She works for a well known chain of shops. She was sent to work in a shop and realised that there were less methadone users than usual. She arranged for a strong room extension to be built, allowing her to make and store more methadone. She had doubled the shops taking as a result. in the companies eyes that is progress. I dread to think of the amount of cash that is handed out for situations like that.

You don´t need a qualified mechanical engineer to change the oil in your car.

Jim D

Thats a sad observation on the part of the country that your friends daughter lives.

Not much worse that walking past the junkies waiting for their fix at the chemist. Cant we just detox them on an island somwhere, St Kilda or Rockall?

I must live a sheltered lifestyle, I have never seen anything like that.

Depends on when you moved.

Here in Ottawa, canada, junkies get free needles while folk with diabetes have to pay for theirs. It is ridiculous

ower here a junkie is called a diabetic (street slang)

Ye can buy another car, but ye cannae buy another life.

Oh no Wombat dont say that, I was diagnosed with diabetes about six months ago.

Luckily only type two as long as I take my pills every day, no problems


John I left over 40 years ago

A bit off the thread, Dave, but it disnae work that way wi diabetes - even the "lucky" type 2 diabetes. It isnae jist a matter of popping a few pills and everything's OK. If your blood sugar levels are kept within bounds, it slows down any possible problems in other areas, but just swallowing the pills isn't always sufficient to keep your sugar levels OK. Even type 2 diabetics can end up injecting insulin and having loadsa other health problems if the disease progresses.

Very profound and couthy, Benny.

The point :- The chances of dying by treating a headache with paracetamol are as unlikely as needing a new car after an oil change.

If everyone went to the GP with the slightest ailment, the NHS would go into meltdown.

The NHS is in meltdown already, Bilbo. Of course I'm not saying everyone who has a cold or a headache should see a doctor, people should use common sense. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people already reluctant to bother their GP who may be encouraged by this "doctor yourself" attitude to put off seeing him/her for potentially life threatening illnesses.

Sorry to come acrosss so flippant Benny, I know its a lot more serious than I made out and since being diagnosed have changed my diet to suit the new situation in my life, when i was first diagnosed I came in at 19.plus and after four months of following doctors instructions plus my changed diet got my count down to 6.3.

I incedently have lost at least 7 kilos and now weigh in at 70 kilos with my BMI index what it should be for my height 5feet9