NHS Direct receive around five million symptomatic calls each year. Over half of them end with self care advice being given out. The self care usually involves an element of medicines information or clinical pharmacy advice.
We currently refer up to 10,000 patients a year with complex medicine enquiries to pharmacists. These pharmacists work within the UK Medicines Information (UKMI) pharmacist network.
On top of this, NHS Direct’s own medicines-trained health information advisors answer 2,000 medicine specific enquiries every week.
Given the increasing demand for medicines advice, we are in the process of recruiting a team of pharmacists so that we can offer expert advice, particularly during evenings and weekends.
