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.

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.

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

A blood sugar test is used to test people for type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a condition characterised by high blood sugar (glucose) levels. It is caused by a lack or insufficiency of insulin which regulates the way glucose is used in your body.

You should consider a blood sugar test if you experience symptoms of diabetes such as

• Constantly feeling thirsty or hungry
• Unexplained weight loss
• Frequent urination
• Blurry vision
• Extreme fatigue

This is especially the case if you any of the risk factors apply to you including being overweight, family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, over 40 years old or high cholesterol.

The American Diabetes Association recommends testing for prediabetes and risk for future diabetes for all people beginning at age 45 years. If tests are normal, it is reasonable to repeat testing at a minimum of 3-year intervals.

We offer free contraception advice and prescriptions to all women aged 17-25. This is part of the new, national free contraceptive service scheme.

The below contraceptive methods are covered:

• Pill/Patch/Ring
• Coils (Mirena/Jaydess/Kyleena)
• Injection (Depo Provera)
• Implant (Implanon)
• Emergency Contraception

Elsa and Mary have been trained to treat requests for emergency contraception both professionally and confidentially. You will just need to answer a few simple questions during this consultation. If for any reason it is unsuitable, they can direct you to another source of help and support.

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.

The pneumococcal vaccine (also known as the pneumonia vaccine) protects against serious and potentially fatal pneumococcal infections.

Pneumococcal infections are caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae and can lead to pneumonia, septicaemia, and meningitis. Illnesses that can cause brain damage or kill.

A pneumococcal infection can affect anyone, but some people are at higher risk of serious illness, including:

• Babies
• Adults aged 65 or over
• People with certain long-term health conditions
• Find out who should have the pneumococcal vaccine

People aged 65 and over only need a single pneumococcal vaccination – a top up may be necessary every 5 years.

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.

Please ask to speak to Elsa, Mary or any of our healthcare team, if you wish to stop smoking. Studies show that you will be 50% more likely to succeed in giving up smoking if you use the correct form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy for you.

The delivery of patient care and pharmacy services to patients residing in residential care and nursing homes is a primary patient safety and professional practice issue. As pharmacists, we play an ongoing role in the healthcare team caring for nursing home and residential care patients, particularly in ensuring safe and appropriate supply and management of medicines.

Our SOPs set out the requirements involved in the sale and supply of medicines to patients who are living in residential care settings/nursing homes. Our SOPs adhere to the PSI guidelines which outline several interactions between pharmacies and nursing home / care facilities relating to the importance of prescriptions, mandatory review of prescribed medicines, patient counselling the appropriate delivery of medicines.

Our pharmacists are also available to participate in an interdisciplinary review of each patient on long-term medication. HIQA recommends this is complete at least every three months.