HEALTH MATTERS

●● DR Graham Duce, GP at Park Green Surgery, Macclesfield, and NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) clinical lead for antibiotic stewardship ONE of the most important aspects of our work as a CCG is encouraging people to take control of their own health.

This is because prevention is better than cure – not only for people’s long term health and wellbeing, but also for a system that is struggling to keep providing the best possible care to an ever-increasing number of patients.

One way in which we want people to help themselves and the NHS at the same time is to start meeting the full cost of prescriptions for conditions that could be treated with self-care, such as paracetamol for headaches, antihistamines for hay fever and cough and cold remedies.

The NHS is facing one of the toughest financial periods in its history and we have made no secret of the fact that we are not immune to these pressures locally.

But our proposed policy could save the CCG around £500,000 – which means we can continue to support services that are of vital importance to our population, such as primary mental health services, and treatments for more serious conditions.

This is because it costs the NHS £8.40 every time a GP writes a prescription, but medicines such as paracetamol and ibuprofen can be bought for as little as 30p in supermarkets and pharmacies.

So if our residents embrace the self-care approach to minor conditions, we can start to make the local NHS work more effectively.

The proposed policy will also mean GPs have more time to spend with patients who really need them – as patients could free up approximately 124,000 GP appointments per year by self-caring for conditions such as coughs and colds instead of visiting the doctor.

I must make it clear we will not be making any changes without talking to our population, which is why we will be undertaking a programme of education and engagement, to find out what you think about our proposed policy.

We’ll be creating a survey for our residents to complete and will be holding information events throughout the summer.

But if you’d like any more information in the meantime, please contact: kate.banks1@nhs.net.