The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland has launched a new campaign highlighting the crucial role pharmacists play in ensuring people get the most out of their medicines. The ‘Good care starts with a conversation’ campaign urges the public to #talktopharmacy if they have any questions about their medicines.

“There is a clear need for these conversations to take place”, said Alex MacKinnon, director at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland. “20% of adults take more than 5 medicines and for people over 70 this rises to 59%. In addition, up to half of all medicines prescribed are not taken as intended.

'We know that every year 61,000 emergency hospital admissions are due to medicines, equating to over 10% of all non-elective hospital admissions.

“Pharmacists must play a much larger role in our NHS to ensure better outcomes for people and prevent avoidable hospital admissions. Our campaign urges people to talk to pharmacy because the good care we all want to see across our NHS, starts with a conversation.”