NHS Services
Medicine Use Review
You can request a Medicine Use Review with Colinton Village Pharmacy at any time, or a member of our Pharmacy Team may ask you to participate in an M.U.R. if we feel you could benefit from this service.
Other healthcare professionals, including your G.P. may also suggest that your pharmacist carries out an M.U.R. with you.During the Medicine Use Review you will speak privately with our Pharmacist to discuss how best to manage your medication and examine issues directly relating to your medicines such as:
- How well are your symptoms controlled?
- What are your medicines for?
- How do they work?
- What is the best way to take them?
- What is the best time to take them?
- What is a particular medicine for?
- How do you improve your inhaler technique?
We are pleased to offer this service, as it allows you easy access to crucial knowledge about your medicines, whilst ensuring you to get the best results from them.
Pharmacy First
Colinton Village Pharmacy Pharmacists are trained and qualified to treat many minor ailments saving you valuable time
Pharmacy First
Pharmacy First enables our patients to have a consultation in a private area and to receive free advice and treatment for many common conditions ranging from Athletes Foot, to Head Lice and many more.
And the great news is that when we treat your minor ailment you don’t even need to book an appointment – just come to the dispensary and ask to speak to the Pharmacist. We will be able to advise you if the minor ailment affecting you, can be treated free under the Pharmacy First Scheme.
Whilst in most cases the treatment recommended by our Pharmacist will cure your condition it is important that if your symptoms persist you seek further advice from the Pharmacist or GP. If you choose to visit your GP always let the Doctor know you have been treated by our Pharmacy and the treatment we recommended.
Pharmacy First Plus
Like Pharmacy First this is a consultation service for minor ailments and allows you to consult a healthcare specialist when you may not be able to get to your GP. As with Pharmacy First we can give advice and can also give medicines depending on the condition and what we think is most suitable for you.
Under Pharmacy First Plus, as a qualified independent prescriber pharmacist, our Superintendent pharmacist may also be able to help you further with a prescribed medicine. She will set up a Patient Medication Record for you and write up a note of the concerns discussed and the outcome of that discussion including any medicines prescribed, this will be shared with your GP. Importantly, if she thinks that it is better for you to see a doctor then she will explain this and advise that you make an appointment with your GP.
If you have any other queries about either of these services do please come and ask. More details can be found in the NHS booklet: Pharmacy First Scotland: Advice, Treatment, Referral, available in the pharmacy or to download here https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-pharmacy-first-scotland-information-patients/documents/
Disposal & Recycling
Colinton Village Pharmacy can safely dispose of out of date medication and recycle packaging, including drug pop out packs where appropriate to do so.
If you have just opened your medicine cupboard or drawer and wonder how you have managed to accumulate all those unused and out of date medicines, or perhaps you are clearing the contents of a loved one’s home and don’t know what to do with medication that is no longer needed, then you are not alone and help is at hand.
Disposing of drugs in general waste can be dangerous. We offer a free service which gives you the complete reassurance that disposal of your unused medication will not cause harm when left in our professional hands.
Medicine Management
Colinton Village Pharmacy provides a free private and personal review to help our customers manage and understand their medication better.
Our Medicine Management service will be of particular benefit to those customers who take multiple medications on a regular basis, perhaps treating several different medical conditions. If you feel you could benefit from a review of your medication you will find the meeting with the Pharmacist relaxed, helpful and informative.
A Medicines Management Review is an ideal opportunity for both you and our Pharmacist to discuss your overall medication needs in a friendly and informal way in a private consultation room within our pharmacy. We will chat about
- The medicines you are taking
- What they do
- How well they work for you
- How to get the most out of them
Medicines work in different ways. Some are taken before you eat to allow them to get into your system quickly.
Some won’t work properly if they are taken with certain foods and herbal remedies or with other medicines.
Some medicines must be taken with or after food because they may otherwise irritate your stomach.
Some should not be crushed because they need to be released into your system slowly, and crushing them could allow them to get into your system too fast.
After a review, we may find that certain medications are no longer required or that they should be taken at a different time of the day or perhaps in a different way.
For a free Medicine Review speak to our Pharmacist or contact us online or by phone.
Smoking Cessation
Here at Colinton Village Pharmacy we care about your long term health and if you are a smoker who wants to quit, but think that you need help to kick the habit, our Stop Smoking Service might just be what you are looking for.
Our Pharmacy team is specially trained to provide free expert help and advice to support you while you initially break the smoking habit and then to stay off cigarettes for good. To help you break your nicotine addiction we may recommend Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). This comes in many different forms including patches and gum and it is important that the right option is chosen to suit your individual needs.
Evidence has shown that if you take part in a Stop Smoking Service that combines advice and support with NRT you are 4 times more likely to quit compared to using willpower alone. This is how the 12 week Stop Smoking programme works:
Initial Consultation
The first consultation with our pharmacist or specially trained advisor takes around 15 minutes. During this time we will agree a quit date and work out the best way for you to quit and learn about the programme.
Week 1
Before or on your agreed date you will visit the pharmacy, have a 5 minute consultation and if recommended, pick up your first week’s supply of NRT.
Weeks 2 to 12
After that you can return to the Pharmacy every week for up to 12 weeks to pick up your supply of NRT.
Emergency Contraception
Emergency hormonal contraception containing the hormone levonorgestrel or Ulipristaland commonly known as the “morning after pill” is available from Colinton Village Pharmacy either with or without a prescription.
You need to take the emergency contraceptive pill within 3 days (Levonelle) or 5 days (ellaOne) of unprotected sex for it to be effective – the sooner you take it, the more effective it’ll be.
Taken as a single pill, emergency hormonal contraception works by stopping a pregnancy before it becomes established by:
- Delaying ovulation or the release of an egg
- Preventing fertilisation of an egg that may already have been released
- Stopping a fertilised egg from embedding within the lining of the womb
Emergency hormonal contraception is not an abortifacient, meaning it will not cause the abortion of a fertilised egg which has already attached itself to the womb; therefore it must be taken within 72 hours (Levonelle) or 120 hours (ellaOne) of having unprotected sex and ideally within 24 hours when it is most effective.
We appreciate the trust our customers place in us when dealing with private and often sensitive healthcare matters. If you need emergency hormonal contraceptive advice you can speak informally with a Pharmacist in the Pharmacy. Direct dial numbers can be found on our website. After a more formal, but discreet and private consultation, within the Pharmacy, if it is considered both safe and appropriate, we can provide you with this form of contraception.
We will need to ask you some general medical questions to make sure emergency hormonal contraception is suitable for you to take. Emergency hormonal contraception is extremely safe with no serious side effects and if it was to fail, and you become pregnant, it has not been shown to affect the pregnancy or harm the developing baby in any way.
Remember this form of contraception should not be used on a regular basis as a first choice method of contraception. We can provide free condoms on request if required.
Seasonal Flu
Colinton Village Pharmacy have trained pharmacists available to provide flu vaccinations within the pharmacy for any individual over 18 years of age.
If you don’t qualify for a NHS seasonal flu vaccination, we can help keep you healthy and well with our local seasonal flu vaccination service saving you a trip to your Health Centre or Doctor. We can deliver NHS vaccinations to those that qualify.
Apart from the serious ill effects of catching influenza, millions of working days are lost each year with seasonal flu. If you cannot afford that time off work or are worried about potentially passing the flu to family friends and associates then book a vaccination with a member of the Pharmacy team to protect yourself and others.
