Self Care

What is self-care?

Self-care means keeping fit and healthy, as well as knowing how to take medicines, treat minor ailments and seek help when you need it.

If you have a long-term condition, self-care is about understanding that condition and how to live with it. Many patients make appoint­ments to see their doc­tor or nurse, when they could be using a well-stocked med­i­cines cab­i­net or vis­it­ing a local phar­ma­cist to treat their symp­toms – and get­ting the same help or advice a lot quicker.

Self-care is the very best choice you can make for treat­ing very minor ill­nesses and injuries.

Why is self-care good for you?

Empowering people with the confidence and information to look after themselves when they can, and visit the GP when they need to, gives people greater control of their own health and encourages healthy behaviours that help prevent ill health in the long-term.

In many cases people can take care of their minor ailments, reducing the number of GP consultations and enabling GPs to focus on caring for higher risk patients, such as those with comorbidities (more than one condition), the very young and elderly, managing long-term conditions and providing new services.

Click on the link below for further information

• Patient Self Care

As well as our practice, there are many other local NHS services you can contact for health advice, information or treatment.

Before you do, remember that you can treat many minor ailments such as colds, coughs and indigestion by keeping a well-stocked medicine cabinet at home.