‘Meet Your Healthcare Experts’ will also be available shortly in a range of health facilities including community health centres and hospitals.
It's a handy guide to the range of services that local healthcare professionals such as pharmacists, physiotherapists, opticians and GPs across Lanarkshire can provide. It provides information to enable people to go directly to the right healthcare professional for the help they need without having to see their GP first.
Dr Iain Wallace, Medical Director for NHS Lanarkshire and member of South Lanarkshire Integration Joint Board said: “We’ve based the information in this booklet on some of the common types of illness and injury that we see in our A&E departments and our GP surgeries that can be treated elsewhere. By following the advice in this guide patients can go to the right healthcare professional first time and by doing so avoid waiting for a GP appointment or being seen in A&E.
“It also provides information and advice on self-care, which is often the quickest and easiest route to feeling better when you’re ill, as well as details on how to access national services like NHS Inform and NHS24.
“The guide is part of our wider ‘Meet the Experts’ campaign which aims to raise awareness of the range and level of healthcare expertise available to communities across Lanarkshire. We want to ensure that GPs see patients only where a GP can help and I would encourage everyone to consider using the other options available when appropriate including health advice from local pharmacies and NHS Inform.   Both can help with self-care for illness such as colds, coughs, sore throats and viruses.
“NHS inform provides advice and information on symptoms and a directory of local services at www.nhsinform.scot . You can chat to an adviser online or you can call them on 0800 22 44 88. Patients who feel they urgently need to see a doctor out with their surgery’s hours should call NHS24 on 111.”
For more information, including the guide and the ‘Meet the Experts’ videos, visit www.nhslanarkshire.org.uk

Click on this link to download the document: http://www.slhscp.org.uk/downloads/file/99/meet_your_local_healthcare_expertspdf