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Pharmacy opening hours over the Easter bank holidays

People across the south east are being reminded to stock up on their medicines before the Easter bank holidays.

The advice comes during a major public health campaign urging people to visit a pharmacist first for minor illness, instead of a GP or A&E.

The NHS is encouraging more people to use their pharmacy first in a move which could help free up GP time for sicker patients and help save the NHS around £850 million each year as well as save time for busy families.

Around 95 per cent of people live within a 20 minute walk of a local community pharmacy, making pharmacists easily accessible and a valuable first port of call for minor health concerns such as coughs, colds, tummy troubles or teething.

Around 18 million GP appointments and 2.1 million visits to A&E are for self-treatable conditions – such as coughs and tummy troubles – at a cost of more than £850 million each year to the NHS.

The call for people, in particular the five million parents of children under five, to use their local pharmacist first for advice is part of the NHS Stay Well Pharmacy campaign. It is backed by pharmacists and Netmums, the UK’s biggest parenting website.

People can find details of their nearest pharmacy on the NHS Choices website at www.nhs.uk. Opening hours for pharmacies in the South East over the Easter weekend are below. We would advise you to call a pharmacy to double check they are open before you go there.