Booklet lists the complete guide to county services

The latest Lanarkshire health care guide will soon be available in community health centres and hospitals in Monklands.

‘Meet Your Healthcare Experts’is a handy description of the range of services that local healthcare professionals, such as pharmacists, physiotherapists, opticians and GPs, can provide.

It offers information to enable people to go directly to the right healthcare professional for the help they need without having to see their GP first.

Dr Iain Wallace, NHS Lanarkshire medical director, said:“We’ve based the information in this booklet on some of the common types of illness and injury that we see in our A&E departments and our GP surgeries that can be treated elsewhere.

“By following the advice in this guide, patients can go to the right healthcare professional first time and by doing so avoid waiting for a GP appointment or being seen in A&E.

“It also provides information and advice on self-care, which is often the quickest and easiest route to feeling better when you’re ill, as well as details on how to access national services like NHS Inform and NHS24.”

Dr Wallace added: “The guide is part of our wider‘Meet the Experts’ campaign which aims to raise awareness of the range and level of healthcare expertise available to communities across Lanarkshire.

“We want to ensure that GPs see patients only where a GP can help and I would encourage

Campaign Dr Iain Wallace