I had an email the other day from South Tyneside CCG regarding an issue under public consultation at the moment; namely the new emergency care hub idea - that is the idea to develop a one stop shop on the general hospital site. 

There were very few members of the public at the first consultation event, but those that were there seemed to agree that the current walk in centre is a convenient and accessible way of obtaining services, but that these could potentially be delivered by the person's GP or community pharmacy. 


Good news for pharmacy you may think? 

Well, yes and no, because although the public welcomed pharmacy's contribution, anything other than the supply function simply wasn't really understood and more shockingly, the entire audience was unaware that community pharmacies these days have private consultation rooms!

We all have some real work to do here; the LPC and contractors...we simply must raise our game here...for pharmacy the consultation room is a given now, but why are the public so unaware?

Last Friday was "Fruity Friday."

This is a great opportunity to get positive health care messages out to the public, whilst allowing them to sample unusual fruits - and perhaps changing  the way they view fruit for the better. I was working from home; but I popped in to see how it was going... The staff had put pictures of fruit around the pharmacy, done a brilliant window display and had chopped up fruit on the counter for the public to sample.

Patients loved it!

One customer JT said "this is a great idea, I've sampled fruit I haven't had in years and it's made me think about my diet"

Something to be repeated next year...