Links Medical Centre, Practice-Based Pharmacy Team
Pharmacy team
Health board pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are becoming more involved in the care of patients in General Practice. Having the pharmacy team working in our surgery provides valuable medicines support, a close link with our community pharmacy teams and allows our GPs to focus their skills and time where they are most needed for patients who have more complex needs.
Who are our pharmacy team?
The pharmacy team are:
Day of the week worked
Agnieszka Wiacek Thursday
Laura Burley Friday
What does the pharmacy team do?
- Provide expertise on day-to-day medicines
- Give advice for patients taking multiple medications
- Carry out medication reviews and other medicines-related support, including discussing side effects
- Give help for patients with their medicines following a stay in hospital, particularly if there has been a change in regimen
- Answer medications and prescription-related questions
- Produce prescriptions
- Support managing patients’ long-term conditions, such as high blood pressure
Why you may get an appointment with one of the pharmacy team
The pharmacists, pharmacy technicians or the doctors often review some or all of your medicines and may want to talk with you about the medicines you are currently taking.
In the practice we like to review your medicine at least once a year or more often if needed. The pharmacy team would get in touch with you to offer you a telephone or a face to face appointment if a medicine review was needed.
Polypharmacy
You may have heard people referring to Polypharmacy. It means lots of medicines.
A medicine review is particularly useful for people who take a lot of medicines; for these people their medicines review may be called a Polypharmacy Review. Further information is on the NHS Scotland’s website Polypharmacy: Manage Medicines or the Managing Multiple Medicines app (available at: Polypharmacy: Manage Medicines)
Information on how you and your doctor (or other healthcare professional) can work together to decide whether you need a medicine and, if so, which to prescribe, can be found in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland publication Medicines in Scotland: What’s the right treatment for me?. This booklet also explains the likely benefits and possible risks of medicines.
You can go to your community pharmacy for advice and medicines for minor illnesses.
The Pharmacy First service – Minor illnesses include:
More information is available at NHS Pharmacy First Scotland.
Information about getting the right treatment for common viral illnesses such as colds and coughs without encouraging antibiotic resistance can be found in the NHS publication Get Well Soon Without Antibiotics.