Services Database Minor Ailments Scheme

All participating community pharmacies shall provide (under the supervision of a pharmacist) a professional consultation service for patients who are registered with a participating GP when presenting with one of the specified conditions. For the purposes of describing the service, the person providing the service under the supervision of the pharmacist will be referred to as the “appropriate person”. It is the supervising pharmacists’ responsibility to ensure that the “appropriate person” has the necessary skills to perform this function.

The appropriate person will assess the patient’s condition.  The consultation will consist of:

• patient assessment;
• provision of advice;
• provision of a medicine(s) from the agreed minor ailment formulary appropriate to the patient’s condition, if required, dispensed with a computer generated label to ensure the pharmacy has an audit trail; and
• the appropriate person will complete the minor ailments (MA) and retain it in the pharmacy.

The appropriate person should ensure that the patient has completed and signed the declaration of exemption of prescription charges on the back of the MA form prescription form.

If, in the opinion of the supervising pharmacist the patient presents with symptoms outside the scheme, they should be referred to their GP surgery.

If the patient presents with symptoms indicating the need for an urgent consultation with the GP, the rapid referral form should be completed and the patient should be advised to phone the surgery.  If the supervising pharmacist phones the surgery on the patient’s behalf, the outcome should be documented on the form. If this situation is outside normal surgery hours, the patient should be advised to contact the out of hours service or to attend A&E as appropriate.

If a patient presents more than twice within any month with the same symptoms, the supervising pharmacist should make a professional decision as to whether the patient should be referred to their surgery or continue treatment via the Minor Ailment Scheme if appropriate.  Unless the symptoms meet the criteria for a rapid referral, the patients should be advised to make an appointment in the normal way.

A nominated pharmacist must attend the CCG accredited training session, and accept responsibility for over seeing the scheme in the pharmacy.