Extra care is necessary when taking several different medicines. This is particularly true for patients with visual or cognitive impairment. Blister packs make it simple and easy to take the right medicines at the right time by dividing your tablets into separately sectioned blisters, each marked with the time of day when the tablets should be taken. This can improve your medication adherence and reduce errors. Caregivers can also easily check that the right medicines have been taken in a timely manner. Blister packs can help if you are

• Struggling to organise medicines.
• Finding it difficult to remember when to take your medicines.
• Helping to look after someone else.
• Recently home from hospital and suddenly have a lot more tablets to take.
• Looking after someone who is visually impaired.
• On a complex medication regime.

Hypertension is the foremost risk factor for cardiovascular events globally and affects around a third of adults. High blood pressure can affect people of all ages but does not always have symptoms. Untreated, high blood pressure may lead to conditions like heart disease or a stroke. Monitoring your blood pressure for 24 hours can help work out if its consistently high. This would be particularly useful if you:

• Have family members with a history of high blood pressure.
• Suspect you have high or borderline high blood pressure.
• Experience variable blood pressure.
• Have conditions such as diabetes or high cholesterol.
• Already take medicines to reduce your blood pressure.
• Experience blood pressure that is hard to control.
• Want to check for Atrial Fibrillation (irregular heartbeat).

For convenience and proximity reasons, community pharmacies play an increasingly important role in hypertension screening and monitoring. Our service involves fitting you with a device to wear, which includes a cuff around your arm that will measure your blood pressure for 24 hours.

Blood Pressure Category	Systolic mm Hg (upper number)		Diastolic mm Hg (lower number)
Normal	Less than 120	and	Less than 80
Elevated	120-129	and	Less than 80
High Blood Pressure – Hypertension Stage 1	130-139	or	80-89
High Blood Pressure – Hypertension Stage 2	Higher than 140	or	Higher than 90
Hypertensive Crisis	Higher than 180	and/or	Higher than 120

COVID-19 vaccine will offer you protection from serious illness with COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccine booster dose

COVID-19 vaccines are strongly recommended to protect people from serious illness caused by COVID-19 (coronavirus).

Adapted Booster Vaccine

• Adapted vaccines are bivalent and contain mRNA based on the spike protein of the ancestral virus, as in the original vaccine, as well as mRNA based on the spike protein of the variant strain, either Omicron BA.1 or Omicron BA.4/5.
• They are adapted to better match circulating variants.
• They are expected to give broader protection against different variants, although their impact on future variants is unpredictable
• In studies comparing the original vaccine, neutralising antibody levels induced by adapted vaccines were similar against the original COVID-19 strain and higher against Omicron.

Emergency Hormonal Contraception (morning after pill) can be used to prevent unplanned pregnancy. An unplanned pregnancy could occur due to mishaps with contraceptives, a missed pill, incorrect timing of patch or vaginal ring application. Emergency contraception is not suitable as a regular method of contraception and it does not prevent pregnancy in every woman. It can be used by women of all ages to prevent unplanned pregnancy. Emergency contraception is most effective if taken as soon as possible after unprotected sex. However, if you are already pregnant, emergency contraceptive pills will not work. Medical card holders can get emergency contraception directly from a pharmacy, free of charge, without having to go to their GP for a prescription. Emergency contraception does not provide protection from sexually transmitted infections. Our compassionate pharmacists provide access to emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) following a private consultation.

Seasonal flu or influenza is an acute respiratory infection caused by flu viruses which circulate in all parts of the world. Seasonal flu symptoms include a high temperature, a severe (usually dry) cough, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, sore throat, and a runny nose. A person with the flu will also feel extremely unwell. Most people recover from the symptoms within a week or two without requiring medical attention. But flu can cause severe illness or death especially in people at high risk (see below). Illnesses range from mild to severe and even death. Hospitalisation and death occur mainly among high risk groups. The most effective way to prevent the flu is get vaccinated. An annual vaccination is recommended as immunity decreases over time. The flu vaccine can be administered as an injection or using an intra-nasal spray. While everyone should consider getting a flu vaccine, it is especially important that the following groups get vaccinated:

• Persons aged 65 years and older.
• Persons with a chronic illness requiring regular follow up, e.g. chronic respiratory disease (including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, moderate or severe asthma and bronchopulmonary dysplasia), chronic heart disease (including acute coronary syndrome), chronic renal disease, diabetes mellitus, haemoglobinopathies, chronic liver disease, chronic neurological disease (including multiple sclerosis, hereditary and degenerative disorders of the central nervous system).
• Those who are immunosuppressed due to disease or treatment including those with missing or non-functioning spleens.
• All cancer patients.
• Patients with any condition that can compromise respiratory function, e.g. spinal cord injury, seizure disorder or other neuromuscular disorder.
• Persons with Down syndrome.
• Those with morbid obesity, i.e. body mass index over 40.
• All pregnant women (vaccine can be given at any stage of pregnancy).
• Healthcare workers.
• Household contacts of at-risk persons.
• Out-of-home care givers to at-risk persons.
• Residents of nursing homes and other long stay institutions.
• Carers.
• People with regular contact with pigs, poultry, or waterfowl.

Our Medication Usage Review is a pre-booked consultation to discuss your medicines (prescribed and non-prescribed). The review helps increase your knowledge and understanding of your medicines, including how and why the medicines should be taken. Our aim is to improve outcomes by helping you to better understand your health conditions and the medications used to manage them. The review also provides an opportunity to highlight any issues, side effects or other medication-related problems and propose solutions if appropriate. This review can be especially helpful for people who are older, have several chronic conditions, take multiple medications, have been using a specific medication over a longer period or are seen by multiple doctors.

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. The pain associated with shingles can be very intense and is usually the 1st symptom. The rash most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around your torso. However, the shingles rash can also appear around the eyes, neck, or face. If a rash appears around the eye, you must quickly seek professional medical attention to avoid long term damage (to the eye). Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes Chickenpox. Anyone who suffered from chickenpox can develop shingles. However not everybody does and why shingles develops in some people and not others remain unclear. Shingles tends to be more common in older adults or people with a weakened immune system. The virus that causes shingles is contagious causing chickenpox in people who have previously not had the infection. Getting vaccinated does not guarantee you will not get Shingles, but the vaccine will likely reduce the course and severity of the infection.