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  • Beating the holiday rush
  • Using the health and symptom checkers
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Beating the holiday rush

Here are our tips for beating the bank holiday rush… 

• Order your repeat prescriptions well in advance
• If you’re going away, pack enough medicines for your trip
• Stock up your medicine cabinet and first aid box
• Find your nearest A&E department, walk-in centre or minor injuries unit
  

Order your repeat prescriptions now

If you have repeat prescriptions, make sure you order your medicines well in advance, as you may not be able to get them during the holiday period.

If you run out of prescription medicines during the bank holiday, you should contact your GP surgery and follow their instructions (usually in the message on their answer phone) for contacting the out-of-hours service.

Alternatively, you may want to contact a pharmacy or local walk-in centre, as they may be able to help too.

Pack enough medicine for your trip

If you run out of prescription medicines while you are away from home, you might be able to get an emergency supply from a pharmacy. They will ask you a range of questions and assess your need. However, they do not have to prescribe any medicines for you.

If they do decide to prescribe an emergency supply, they will give you a suitable dose, not always the amount you usually receive. The pharmacy can charge for this service. There is no fixed price and the charges may vary between pharmacies.

If you need non-prescription medicines, such as paracetamol, antiseptic cream, cold remedies or plasters, you should be able find these at pharmacies, supermarkets and garages.

Medicine cabinet and first aid essentials

Hopefully your bank holiday will be injury-free, but there is usually a rise in accidents during this period, so it might be worthwhile stocking up on plasters and paracetamol just in case.

Here are a few items you might want to keep handy:

• Antiseptic cream or spray
• Plasters, dressings and bandages
• Paracetamol or ibuprofen
• Aspirin (do not give to anyone under 16 years old)
• Thermometer
• Antihistamines
• Sun cream (of SPF15 or above)

NHS Choices also have some advice about what you should keep in your first aid kit.

Find your nearest…

The easiest way to find your nearest GP, dentist, pharmacy or A&E department is to use our 'Find your nearest' tool. Just enter your postcode, tick the services you want to search for and click 'find'.

To search for all other health services, you can visit the NHS Choices local service search.

You can search for any healthcare provider near you, such as your nearest hospital, sexual health clinic, Primary Care Trust or optician. Simply select the service you want, enter your postcode and click ‘find’.

The results will show the nearest service first but you can also change the results to display in alphabetical order.

How to assess yourself with our health and symptom checkers...