Hand, foot & mouth disease seems to be doing the rounds locally again. This common, self-limiting viral infection is sometimes initially confused with chickenpox but as the name suggests the blisters are usually limited to the feet, hands and mouth area. You can search our health information tab to find out more about this infection.

Been supplied with Alimentum Similac or Elecare Similac infant formula for your baby? Abbott are recalling some batches due to possible bacteria contamination. Please contact the dispensing pharmacy or store to check if yours is OK before feeding to your infant.

NHS prescriptions in England are not free for everyone (unlike Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) – unless exempt there is a charge of £9.35 for most items, although some medications & appliances attract different charges. Individuals can be exempt on grounds of age (under 16, under 18 in full time education and over 60 years old), women who are pregnant or new mothers, those with certain medical conditions or those on specific low-income benefits. Of the 1.1 billion prescription items dispensed in 2018, almost 90% were reportedly free of charge. There is however, a possibility that changes are coming. To very little public fanfare, the government launched a consultation for 9 weeks in the run up to September 2021 around the possibility of increasing the upper age limit for free NHS presc

As covid restrictions ease in England this month, please be aware that as we are a healthcare setting, face coverings will still be required to attend pharmacy consultations & services. This is to protect those who are very poorly with other conditions but may still need to visit the pharmacy. Thank you for your co-operation.

Wyvern Pharmacy now offer the NHS Hypertension Finding Service. Hypertension means high blood pressure, which if not diagnosed is a major risk factor for heart attacks, stroke and kidney problems. The problem with high blood pressure is that it usually has no symptoms, so is often not discovered until it has already started causing problems. To combat this, the NHS has asked pharmacies like Wyvern Pharmacy to offer free blood pressure checks to anyone over 40 (or younger if there is a family history of hypertension) who don’t already have issues with their heart or blood pressure. We use a high spec blood pressure monitor in pharmacy to check blood pressure & pulse rate. If readings are safe (below 140/85 mmHg) we let your GP know and can offer advice on keeping healthy in the years to com

Private pneumonia vaccines are available at Wyvern Pharmacy. For those not entitled to NHS vaccination, this can protect against a leading cause of pneumonia and reduce the need for antibiotics. Only £30 per vaccination. Check out our Health Advice tab for more detail on pneumonia, the symptoms and causes.

The cost of our private clinic is changing. A consultation charge of £10 applies & the cost of any medication prescribed & supplied will be in addition & based on the trade price of the manufacturer. We hope this continues to offer value for this innovative service. Ideally appointments can be booked in advance by calling 01254 875008 so we can ensure appropriate triage. As always, medication & health advice can be provided by phone for no charge as part of our NHS contract.

The menopause is when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally. Periods usually start to become less frequent over a few months or years before they stop altogether. Sometimes they can stop suddenly. The menopause is a natural part of ageing that usually occurs between 45 and 55 years of age, as a woman's oestrogen levels decline. In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach the menopause is 51. But around 1 in 100 women experience the menopause before 40 years of age. Most women will experience menopausal symptoms. Some of these can be quite severe and have a significant impact on your everyday activities. Common symptoms include: hot flushes, night sweats & vaginal dryness. More information can be found on our Health Advice tab.

Our pharmacy has started to offer ear wax removal as a private service. Once upon a time known as ear syringing, it is now considered poor practice to use an actual syringe to flush the ear, as the pressure from this can rupture the ear drum, which risks infection, hearing loss & vertigo. Instead we use ear irrigation, using a steady flow of lower pressure water via a Propulse irrigator. Our trained pharmacist will always advise a consultation before the actual procedure to make sure that irrigation is both indicated AND likely to be safe. Sometimes muffled hearing can be caused by other conditions such as an infection - our pharmacist prescriber can also deal with this without needing to send you to your GP. Give us a call if you'd like to know more.

We've had a lot of requests for our hay fever injection recently. Sadly this year we are NOT recommending this treatment as it lowers immunity to other allergens - including Covid-19. The risk of being hospitalised from a bout of Covid is too large compared to the benefit of hay fever symptom reduction. We may still be able to help hay fever with other prescription only medicines in our private clinic, including tablets and nasal sprays not available over-the-counter.

As we slowly open up from Covid lock down, we have had a big surge in interest for our weight loss services. Injections are showing huge popularity and are also giving good effects, so word of mouth is really driving people’s awareness of prescription-only help with losing weight. At Wyvern Pharmacy we only use UK licensed medicines obtained from reputable wholesalers, as well as offering weigh-in and both face-to-face and telephone advice from our pharmacist. This is a big benefit from the “buy & forget” online doctors – and of course the risk of counterfeit medication that can exist on the internet. If you want to discuss options for weight loss help, please call us to book a no-obligation consultation with our pharmacist prescriber.

UK vaccination against Covid-19 is continuing at a great rate and this is helping protect those vulnerable to complications from the infection as well as allowing the steady relaxing of our restriction laws. The NHS will contact you when it is time for your age group to receive the vaccine and we would urge you to accept the invitation & book in for your jab. Remember you will need two jabs to be fully protected and will still need to follow social distancing and face mask guidelines until we are advised otherwise. For more information see https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination

Hay fever (or seasonal allergic rhinitis if we want to be proper) results from our body producing an allergic reaction to pollen. Symptoms typically include itchy, watery eyes, a runny nose, dry cough, scratchy throat and possibly a bit of a wheezy chest. Severity varies greatly, with some people only mildly affected and others suffering to the extent of having to cancel plans as they can’t get outside! Timing varies too, depending on the type of pollen an individual is allergic to. Those who suffer specifically from tree pollen allergy tend to find symptoms start quite early in the year, often around March, while weeds are often a problem that lingers in Autumn. Regardless of cause, treatments are similar although some people respond better to one than another and it can be a little trial

As we move to relaxing the UK Covid restrictions, NHS Test & Trace is allowing all adults free access to lateral flow tests to use at home. The idea behind this is that testing people with no symptoms twice a week will pick up anyone with asymptomatic infection and prevent unknowingly spreading Covid around their contacts. The tests are available to anyone, but are especially recommended for those who have to leave home for work, or those with close contact with school children or school workers. Tests can be collected from test centres and Wyvern Pharmacy and have full instructions inside the box. Call in or contact us for more information.

Wyvern Pharmacy now offer the NHS Discharge Medication Service. This NEW service means we can help people who are discharged from hospital to ensure the medicines given are safe, correct and reconciled with existing prescriptions. This aims to mean that there is less risk of people needing to be re-admitted to hospital after discharge, as we can help prevent prescribing errors between hospital and GP surgery. This service is open to anyone living in England as we can provide the service by phone or video call. Let the discharging hospital know you would like a referral to Wyvern Pharmacy and we’ll help with your medicines once you are home.

Although the UK lock down carries on for now, as the vaccine roll out continues apace we have reason to hope that some restrictions will start to ease. While an exciting thought, this also has many people looking at how much weight has been gained through lock down, as home schooling, home working and general boredom took their toll. People may wish to slim down before going back to offices or (fingers crossed) a few days away from home. Being overweight also brings risks of heart problems, high blood pressure and worse outcomes if infected with viruses like flu and Covid. For many of these people dieting alone will not offer a quick enough drop in body weight for their expectations, which can be disheartening and lead to “giving up” on achieving a healthy weight. We all know the general r

Congratulations to our Jen, who has completed and passed the CPPE course for Accuracy Checking Technicians. This means that she is accredited to complete the final accuracy check of prescriptions ready to send out to customers, provided they have been dispensed by another member of the team and clinically checked as safe by a pharmacist. This will free up more of our pharmacist’s time to focus on our extra service offering, like travel and flu vaccines (and fingers crossed Covid vaccines sometime soon), weight loss clinic, private clinic prescribing and medicines advice for people recently discharged from hospital, or started on new medication by their GP. What a great start to 2021 at Wyvern Pharmacy!

We have teamed up with Healthera to offer an NHS approved mobile app to order repeat prescriptions direct from your doctor. The app can also be used to message our pharmacy with queries, set up dose times & order reminders and manage dependant’s medication all in one place. To get the most out of the app, you’ll also need your NHS Online Codes from your surgery. This will link the app to your medical records, updating your medication list accurately and allowing prescription requests to be made quickly direct with the GP. Download the Healthera app & search for Wyvern Pharmacy, or get in touch with us direct for a text or email invite. Or if you’re passing, scan the QR code on our window poster! https://www.healthera.co.uk/for-patients

Well done to Maddie. Once our apprentice now a full member of the dispensary team, Maddie was chosen by AAH (a national pharmaceutical wholesaler) to be a Community Hero for her work at Wyvern during the pandemic. She was put forward by our pharmacist and chosen as 1 of 10 individuals in the whole of the UK and was sent an amazing box of goodies! We’re very proud of how far our youngest staff member has come.

We would like to wish everyone a very happy New Year. We hope that 2021 is a positive one and send out our best wishes that everyone stays safe and healthy. If you would like any advice on healthy living for the new year, such as stopping smoking, losing weight or cutting down on alcohol, please have a browse on our website Health Advice pages, or call the pharmacy where a member of the team will be happy to point you in the right direction.