Pharmacists have backed an NHS Scotland campaign to encourage patients to visit them to discuss repeat prescriptions.

The six-week campaign, which launched last week (April 22), will use newspaper and radio adverts as well as posters in pharmacies across Scotland to prompt patients to take a "fresh look" at their medicines and speak to a pharmacist or GP about any concerns.

The adverts, titled ‘Let's talk medicines' and featuring a Scottish pharmacist, would raise awareness that pharmacists were "more accessible and easier to get hold of" than GPs, said contractor Fiona McElrea of Whithorn Pharmacy in Wigtownshire.

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	"The general public often don't know what we do and what services we can offer, so it's a good idea because it makes them more aware that they can come to us as a first port of call," she told C+D today (May 1).

Christopher Cameron, pharmacist at Cornton Pharmacy, Stirling, said the posters were already up in his pharmacy and the campaign was a "great opportunity" for pharmacists to get more involved with patients' medicines.

"Pharmacies are an accessible place for patients and anything that raises the profile of community pharmacy and the knowledge that pharmacists have is excellent," he told C+D.

"I think it will put [the patient's] mind to rest with questions about side effects and duration of treatment," he added.

The scheme was funded through "modest investments" from NHS health boards in the west of Scotland, where the advertising in the local media will be focused, a spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley, one of the boards involved, told C+D.

NHS Scotland will evaluate the campaign's success by collecting feedback from pharmacists, health boards and patients, the spokesperson said. Community Pharmacy Scotland chief executive Harry McQuillan said the campaign would lead to patients taking more interest in their medicines and therefore becoming more informed.

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