Virtual Health Services

Our clinicians are able to offer a number of clinical services to you, ranging from giving you advice about your medications and what to do if you miss a dose, to general advice on healthy living. We even provide NHS services at a distance, via virtual consultations, such as stop-smoking clinics, New Medicine Service (NMS), Pharmacy First, pharmacy contraception service, travel health advice, weight management advice, and medication reviews. It’s all designed to save you time, money, and inconvenience. So, there may be no need to visit your doctor or pharmacy.

The video consultation feature is the ‘glue’ that forms the basis of the NowPatient service.

You can interact with the feature from one of two pathways:

1. Where you book an appointment

2. Where we approach you, because we feel that you would benefit from advice or certain services

NowPatient continuously assesses your health risks, using data. If we find that you may benefit from a service, we will reach out to you or send you a message.  If you wish to accept the invitation, then simply follow the steps shown above.

We may reach out in cases where we feel our clinicians can offer valuable advice on medication usage, and medication review, or to provide services like the New Medicine Service, Weight Management Advice, and Stop Smoking Advice. Our goal is to ensure we are proactive in the management of your health.

Once you register and have your first prescription filled by NowPatient, you will be given FREE access to book live video consultations with our team of clinicians.

Live video consultations with our clinicians can be useful for:

• General medical advice

• Advice on medication

• Advice on what to do if you miss a dose of your medication

• Advice on what to do if you suffer from side effects to your medication

• Stop smoking advice

• Asthma inhaler use and advice

• Weight management advice

• Accessing NHS services like the New Medicine Service

Yes. NowPatient allows you to choose from a pool of clinicians based on variables such as gender and languages spoken.

Our clinicians will only ever inform your doctor if they have concerns following the consultation and only if you give them explicit consent to do so.

Your consultation with the pharmacist will end at 8 minutes. A timer will appear on your screen for the final 2 minutes of your consultation, so you are aware of the remaining time. Should you wish to have more time, another consultation can be booked.

Yes. If they are in the same location as you, it is possible to have someone with you during your video consultation. You should let your pharmacist know if you have someone with you at the start of your appointment.

Yes, for your safety and to ensure the service we provide you with complies with regulations, our clinicians may request you provide ID at the start of your virtual consultation to verify your identity.

Virtual consultations are suitable for many patients who do not need a physical examination and who can communicate via video. Video consultations might not always be suitable – for example, if you need a test or physical examination. If that is the case, you will need to attend your doctor practice. Pharmacists are on hand to offer advice on minor illnesses but are not a substitute for your doctor if you have a serious illness or life-threatening conditions. If at any time during your video consultation you feel that you would like to end the consultation, you can say that you would like to end the video call.

The traditional pharmacy model encourages patients with health concerns to come into the pharmacy and ask for a consultation. NowPatient is the UK’s first live video consultation service led by pharmacists, in a real-time setting. It allows patients to book a consultation with a pharmacist from anywhere in England. The consultation can be conducted via smartphone, tablet or PC. If symptoms suggest it’s something more serious, pharmacists have the right training to make sure you get the help you need. For example, they will tell you if you need to see a GP, nurse or other healthcare professional.

Did you know?

• More than 58 million informal healthcare consultations are provided by pharmacists and their teams every year;

• Every year 44 million patients self-refer to a pharmacist and their teams for healthcare advice, with 5 million unable to access other forms of healthcare;

• Informal consultations provided by pharmacists and their teams save more than 24 million GP appointments every year; and

• During COVID-19, according to the Nuffield Trust, there has also been a surge in patients’ uptake of remote health services, including registrations for the NHS App, NHS login and e-prescription services

As qualified healthcare professionals, our clinicians can offer clinical advice, help with medications, minor illness advice and certain NHS-commissioned services that might benefit you, such as medication use reviews and the New Medicine Service, which aims to give you extra help and advice if you’re just starting on a new medicine. If symptoms suggest it’s something more serious, our clinicians have the right training to make sure you get the help you need. For example, they will tell you if you need to see a doctor, nurse or other healthcare professional. All pharmacist clinicians train for 5 years in the use of medicines. They are also trained in managing minor illnesses and providing health and well-being advice.

You may be sent a short survey asking you about your experience attending your video consultation. We encourage you to complete this as it provides us with valuable feedback to improve your experience in the future. It’s helpful for us if you point out things that didn’t go well, and suggest ways of improving the experience for you and others. If you would like the clinician to send details of the consultation to your doctor, you can request that we forward any notes.

The New Medicine Service is an NHS Commissioned service that is available at NowPatient which gives you extra help and advice if you’re just starting on a new medicine for one of the following conditions:

• Asthma and COPD

• Diabetes (Type 2)

• Hypertension

• Hypercholesterolemia

• Osteoporosis

• Gout

• Glaucoma

• Epilepsy

• Parkinson’s disease

• Urinary incontinence/retention

• Heart failure

• Acute Coronary Syndromes

• Atrial fibrillation

• Long-term risks of venous thromboembolism/embolism

• Stroke / transient ischemic attack

• Coronary heart disease

The New Medicine Service is a simple, deliverable intervention which helps patients and also saves the NHS money. If you have recently started taking medications for any of the above conditions, our systems will pick this up and check to see if you qualify for this service. If you do, you will be sent an invite. You do not need to have your prescriptions dispensed by NowPatient to access this service.