Fylde coast GPs are encouraging people to help save them time by avoiding unnecessary appointments for illnesses that could easily be treated at home.

Many people go to their GP with minor conditions such as a cough or cold simply because they don’t know how to deal it with it themselves.

For many common ailments the treatments are as simple as rest and over the counter remedies which can be found in a well-stocked medicine cabinet.

In order to help people learn how to treat the most common ailments, a series of new informative fact sheets have been created as part of the Think! Why A&E? campaign. From the common cold, eczema and acne, to sprains and strains, the fact sheets cover 13 ailments describing symptoms, how to treat them at home and when you should see your GP.

The useful resource also includes advice for parents and carers regarding minor common childhood illnesses.

Speaking on behalf of the Fylde coast NHS, Dr Amanda Doyle, a Blackpool GP and Chief Clinical Officer at NHS Blackpool CCG, said: “Health services are stretched for resources and time across the country and we need to encourage people to use those services in the most appropriate way. As we get in to winter the chances of people becoming ill and needing to see a GP increase so we need to reduce the number of people going who don’t actually need to. GPs see a lot of patients who do not really need to be there if they were educated to treat common complaints themselves.

“These are conditions that are not serious and will often get better by themselves with just a few simple remedies. For example a sore throat will often get better within a week with regular paracetamol; you don’t need a trip to the GP for that.”

The launch of the new fact sheets comes following this year’s Self Care Week, a national awareness campaign encouraging people to make time to think about the positive steps they can take to embrace self-care for life. Embracing self-care for life is about living well and being healthy. Being active, eating healthily and learning when to self-treat common ailments are all ways to embrace self-care.
You can download the self-care fact sheets from http://whyaande.nhs.uk/self-care-information