This week is Ask Your Pharmacist week 2020. Ask Your Pharmacist week is the annual public awareness campaign for community pharmacy across the UK and this year is taking place between 2nd -9th November 2020. This year's theme is ‘Your local pharmacy in the NHS family’. According to an opinion survey carried out for the NPA in June, only 29% of people are “definitely aware” that community pharmacies are part of the NHS, despite the fact that pharmacies are the most visited of all settings where NHS care is offered.

This year’s Ask Your Pharmacist Week is a chance to further establish in the public’s mind the fact that community pharmacies are a key member of the NHS family. The better it’s understood that community pharmacies are part of the NHS team, the more people will be willing to access NHS services in pharmacies and support the further development of integrated, patient-centred care.

We also want to make greater use of community pharmacists’ skills and opportunities to engage patients.
The key messages of this year’s AYP Week are:

1. Pharmacies are part of the NHS family
2. Community pharmacies provide a range of NHS services
3. Community pharmacists work with other professionals, such as doctors and nurses, to give you the best possible care as part of the local healthcare team

Please make the most of the prompt, professional health care advice available to you locally from your Swettenham Chemist as an NHS service and remember to - Ask Your Pharmacist.