The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7323 p636
30 October 2004

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News summary

OTC advice line launched

A new over-the-counter medicines advice line has been launched by the Customer Health Information Centre, an information service run by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain. The advice line is part of a support service to help consumers use OTC medicines correctly. The service also includes an education leaflet, entitled “Getting the best from medicines you buy”, which is being distributed to pharmacies across the UK.

Calls to the advice line are answered by nurses from the Medical Advisory Service, a charity that employs nurses disabled through illness or work injury. They will be able to give advice on use of OTC medicines, storage and interactions, and to offer a detailed counselling service to callers with more complex problems.

The service aims to offer a way of obtaining advice if consumers are not comfortable talking directly to their pharmacist or GP, or feel a question is not important enough to warrant speaking to their pharmacist.

Ash Soni, chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Association, said that pharmacists should see the advice line as a useful adjunct to their services. The Over-the-Counter Medicines Advice Line number is 020 8742 7042.