Spreading the Choose Well message
7th November marks the beginning of National Ask Your Pharmacy Week. On that date, NHS North West will be launching a series of humourous viral videos featuring real-world examples of some of the most frivolous reasons why people visit A&E departments.
Focussing on patients in the waiting rooms, the viewer is unsure until the end of the films whether they’re in a vet’s surgery, X-factor audition, beauty salon – or a hospital.
Although these films are funny, there is a serious message behind them. We need people to make sure that they choose the right NHS services if they need treatment this winter, so that they can be seen quickly and efficiently, and so that A&E and 999 teams across the country are free to deal with life-threatening and serious conditions, such as heart attacks, strokes, serious accidents and breathing problems.
Although these films are funny, there is a serious message behind them. We need people to make sure that they choose the right NHS services if they need treatment this winter, so that they can be seen quickly and efficiently, and so that A&E and 999 teams across the country are free to deal with life-threatening and serious conditions, such as heart attacks, strokes, serious accidents and breathing problems.
We want as many people as possible to watch these films and absorb their message, and we need your help.
If every member of NHS staff posts a link to these films to their social media profiles, they will reach an audience of tens of millions of people within just a few days, raising awareness nationwide of the impact of unnecessary A&E attendances, and highlighting the abilities of local pharmacists to provide advice and treatment for minor complaints.
In the last 12 months, unnecessary visits to A&E cost the NHS in the North West £21 million. Let’s make this winter different.
So please do your bit and post these videos to your professional and personal social media pages – we might just start a real NHS revolution, resulting in your A&E teams never again having to hold an emergency consultation for a broken nail!
Actors from stage and screen gave up their time free of charge to appear alongside NHS staff as characters including women waiting for treatment for hair-dye disasters and botched false nails, a pushy mum desperate for her son to be seen by senior doctors for his diarrhoea, and even a man hoping A&E staff will turn their hands to helping out his poorly dog!
The more serious message is that cases such as these put added pressure on already busy A&E and 999 teams. In the North West alone, more than 400,000 people who could have been treated and advised by their local pharmacist or GP, or could have looked after themselves at home, went to A&E departments in the last 12 months.
Watch the videos now at http://bit.ly/rGJxLw
