NHS Pharmacy First Scotland is an NHS service provided by your local community pharmacy. 

If you have a minor illness, a pharmacy is the first place you should go for advice.

Pharmacies | NHS Inform

You do not usually need an appointment and you can go to any pharmacy.

Your local pharmacist or a trained member of the pharmacy team will give you advice and provide medicine if needed. They may need to refer you to another healthcare professional such as your GP practice, dentist, optometrist or another NHS service if they feel your condition needs further investigation or more specialist care.

Pharmacy First Scotland

Your pharmacist can advise you about conditions such as: (click on the blue word to open link to more information)

Acne

Allergies   Athlete's foot  Atopic eczema    

Backache   Blocked or runny nose 

Cellulitis    Cold sores     Conjunctivitis    Constipation      Coughs      Cystitis

Diarrhoea

Earache

Fungal nail infection

Headaches   Head lice and nits  Haemorrhoids (piles)    Hay fever 

Impetigo   Indigestion   Insect bites and stings

Mouth ulcer

Pain      Period pain     

Shingles   Sore throat

Threadworms   Thrush

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)

Verrucae & Warts   

Thrush

If you are female aged between 16 and 60 you can buy antifungal medicine from pharmacies if you have had thrush diagnosed in the past and you know the symptoms.

For more details of symptoms of thrush please click on the link to the NHS website below:

Symptoms of Thrush

If you suffer hayfever symptoms and are registered with a GP practice you can use the Pharmacy First service offered by local community pharmacies.  Your local pharmacist will give you advice and provide medicine to treat your hayfever symptoms free of charge.  For children under 1 year old with allergies or  hayfever symptoms please book a telephone or video appointment with a GP.

You usually only need to see your GP if:

• you can't control your symptoms with over-the-counter medications, or you have troublesome side effects caused by the medication
• you are experiencing persistent complications of hay fever, such as worsening asthma or repeated episodes of sinusitis
• the pattern of your symptoms is unusual, such as occurring during the winter or only at your workplace (it is likely that another substance other than pollen is responsible, and further testing will be needed to confirm this)

For more information and self-help with hay-fever please click on the links below:

https://www.nhsinform.scot/self-help-guides/self-help-guide-hay-fever

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/immune-system/hay-fever