G69 How do community pharmacies support children with minor illness

Background Many parents are using ED services as a first point of contact. A large proportion of the attendances are low acuity. Greater use of community pharmacy services for minor ailments could help relieve pressure on healthcare providers in high-cost settings.There are no systematic studies of community pharmacy use by parents in the UK. Aim To describe the use of community pharmacist minor ailment service (MAS) by parents in a single Borough Methods A CCG service level agreement was in place for community pharmacists MAS. Mandatory completion of every consultation was carried out over a 12 month period.Age, presenting illness, time to consultation and feedback on the service were collected. Descriptive analysis of data. Results 6974 consultations by 4174 patients over 12 month period (02/2013 to 02/2014) involving 47 Pharmacies with the provision of 70 over the counter (OTC) medications for 20 ailments.More than half (57%, n=2,379) of the patients below the age of 16 3593. 52% of the consultations occurred in infants of which only 2% (143) were signposted to either the GP or accident and emergency.Fever, Hay fever and sore throat were the 3 most common ailments treated at the pharmacy, and these accounted for 58% of total consultations. In addition, 85% (n=3535) of patients were seen not more than twice with only 19 (0.5%) patients using the scheme more than 10 times within the 12 month period. Notably, 96% of all patients were seen within 10 min (and 69% Conclusions Community pharmacists contribute a valuable service for this group of children and may allow for more appropriate demand management in the community for less severe illness. There is potential for further involvement of paediatricians in supporting community pharmacist. This study needs to be repeated in other sites.