Your health

Kate is an Assistant Clinical Director for the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Public Dental Service and has advised on the role of the Out of Hours Dental Service.

What is the role of the Out of Hours Dental Service?  

The role of the Out of Hours Dental Service is to provide people with urgent dental care if needed outside of their dentist’s working hours.   

How can they help you? 

If you are experiencing significant dental pain, or you have any urgent dental need outside of the hours your dentist, the Out of Hours Dental Service can help you if appropriate.  

How can you speak to the Out of Hours Dental Service? 

To access the Out of Hours Dental Service, call NHS 24 on 111, select the dental option and you will receive help and advice.  

The service only provides help for urgent dental conditions, but people are urged to call 111 even if they’re not sure. Even if you are not referred to the Out of Hours Service, you will receive advice on self-care and help available locally. 

If your issue isn’t out of hours, please call your local dentist and provide them with the details of your problem. If they think you require to see someone urgently, they will organise an emergency appointment with them.  

Kerri is a General Practitioner (GP) in the Southside of Glasgow. 

What is the role of the General Practitioner?  

The role of a GP and how you access primary care has changed.  

Your GP continues to provide general health advice and care, however, when you come in for an appointment, what you see is only a small part of practice life. There is a lot that takes place that you might not see from reception contacting patients, virtual appointments, medication reviews, patient letters, clinics, training and much more.    

How can they help you? 

Contact your GP if you have an urgent care need, an illness that does not improve with self-treatment, are worried about your health, or have an ongoing health condition. 

If you feel like you need to contact your GP, please ensure that you’ve checked self-help guides online and / or spoken with your local pharmacist for advice on common ailments, their treatments and medication first.  

This is particularly important with winter viruses at this time of year. Most cough, cold and flu symptoms result from common winter viruses. Viral infections do not respond to antibiotics, so rather than calling your GP, the best advice is to stay at home and take traditional over-the-counter remedies.  

How can you make an appointment with a GP? 

You can contact your GP by calling your practice’s reception. Please know that to ensure that you’re accessing the right care, GP receptionists will triage by asking some confidential questions. They’ll then signpost you to the person or service that best meets your needs. This may be your GP, or it could be one of the services mentioned below. 

GPs now have access to support services that complement and support GP care including advanced nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physiotherapists, nurses managing vaccinations, and community links workers for social and wellbeing.  

Before calling your GP, you’re encouraged to seek help via online resources as your symptoms could be treated at home. It is important that you use the resources available when you have a health issue. Think about the symptom finder of NHS Inform, use the NHS 24 app, and in addition there are other people around to seek help from.  

Sharon Irvine is a Community Link Worker who has been based at Castlemilk Health Centre for two years. 

What does a Community Link Worker do?

Community Link Workers are based in GP practices in some of Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s most vulnerable areas, based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. CLWs aim to help people who may contact their GP with issues that are not medical, but are negatively affecting their lives.

How can they help you?

CLWs can help with a range of social issues including money and debt help, energy costs, housing, loneliness and isolation, and problems with mental health and wellbeing.  

They can link people to groups and organisations, often within their own community, that provide support.

Link workers can support people with housing meetings and applications, and some run walking groups to help participants make new connections and improve their wellbeing. In Castlemilk, Sharon also helps run a bereavement group to provide additional support to those who need it. 

How can you speak to a Community Links Worker?

At GP practices that have an embedded CLW, any member of the multi-disciplinary primary care team can make a referral. People can also self-refer. 

Willis is an Optometrist at Wilkie Optometrists and an NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Optometric Advisor. 

What does an optometrist do?  

The role of an optometrist is more than determining whether you need glasses. An optometrist specialises in overall healthcare for eyes and vision, including detection of diseases.  

How can they help you? 

You don’t have to be a glasses wearer to visit an optometrist for help. Anyone in Greater Glasgow and Clyde can visit an optometrist if they have an issue with their eyes. This could be issues with vision or sore, red, or itchy eyes. 

If the optometrist feels it is appropriate, they can also prescribe you medication for any infections involving your eyes.  

Optometrists can also detect eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration.  

How can you speak to an optometrist? 

Contact any optometrist in your local area of high street. If you’re in pain and they can’t give you an appointment that day, they’ll help you find an optometrist who can.  

In many instances, people think that the best place to go with sore, red, or itchy eyes is their GP, however the GP will signpost you to an optometrist so your best to go to them directly. 

This appointment is covered by the NHS and you will not need to pay for a consultation. 

Azhar Sheikh is a community pharmacist based in the southside of Glasgow. 

What is a Community Pharmacist?

Pharmacies have truly become the heart of healthcare in the community setting and are no longer just a place to collect your prescriptions. A community pharmacist offers advice to patients for a range of minor illnesses, helps to counsel patients on how to take their medicines safely, and recommends the most effective treatments. They also have consultation rooms where you can chat in private and have some conditions examined when appropriate.

How can they help you? 

In addition to fulfilling prescriptions, the range of services that a community pharmacist provides has vastly changed in the last few years. They can now also treat conditions such as impetigo, shingles or urinary tract infections, so if you feel like you might have one of these, your pharmacist should be your first stop. No appointment is required.  

Community pharmacists are also good to help advise with colds and flu. Many viruses are not treatable with antibiotics, but community pharmacists can help with various over-the-counter medicines to help you feel comfortable and alleviate the symptoms you may be experiencing.   

How can you speak to a Community Pharmacist? 

Your local pharmacist is available to speak to you during the day whether that’s you going to the pharmacy or simply phoning them.  

Find your closest community pharmacy on the NHS Inform Pharmacies webpage.

What is Primary Care?

Primary Care is your first point of contact with healthcare and your front door to care with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Primary Care services have evolved, and it’s crucial that you and your loved ones are well-informed and empowered to access the right professional at the right time. It’s also important to know when it’s appropriate to stay at home and care for yourself. 

You have a range of support services available that complement and enhance GP care, including advanced nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physiotherapists, vaccination nurses, and community links workers who focus on social and wellbeing support. Additionally, you can access services like dentists and optometrists in your local area. 

These professionals are part of your Primary Care team. To help you feel confident in seeking the right help, we’ve highlighted some of our NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Primary Care roles.  

Click on each one below to learn more about their roles, how they can assist you, and how you can reach them. 

Remember, it’s also important to utilise the resources available to you when you have a health concern. Before contacting any healthcare professional, consider using online resources, as your symptoms might be manageable at home. Helpful tools include symptom finder on NHS Inform and the NHS 24 app.

Click below to hear what’s available to you in Primary Care

Pregnancy is a great opportunity for change and stopping smoking is the best thing you can do for your baby

Here you will find information to help you if you are thinking about stopping smoking or vaping, or if you want to help or encourage someone you know to stop smoking.

We are not here to tell you all the bad things about smoking as you already know what they are.

We are here to help, advise, encourage, motivate and support you at every step of your journey. We will tailor a unique programme for you and support you in that programme. And if you don’t succeed at first, we will not judge or criticise. We will help you to review what you have achieved and will continue to work with you until you succeed. There is also support available to help you and your family and friends too.

Many people can quit on their own, but evidence shows you are three times more likely to successfully quit and stay smoke-free by quitting with our help.

With your determination and commitment, and our encouragement and support, we are confident you can be smoke-free.

From here you can access a wide-range of information on child and maternity healthcare services, including guidance and support available, both in our hospitals and in the community.

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Frontline Equality Assessment Tool

The Frontline Equality Assessment Tool (FEAT) has been designed to ensure that every service gets it right every time for all our patients.

Developed in response to feedback from our staff on areas where they feel NHSGGC could be doing better, the Tool also takes into account evidence from the experiences of our patients.

The FEAT focusses on assessing how we can fully meet the needs of all our patients within frontline services. It will be used by lead members of local service teams in collaboration with the Equality and Human Rights Team to look at patient flow and integration of inequalities sensitive practice.

This will involve reviewing how patient data is collected, how communication support is assessed, knowledge of protected characteristic-related issues and associated policies and protocols as well as the impact on discharge planning.

By translating the language of legislation into practical steps for staff, the FEAT offers a sense check which highlights both where there are gaps in services’ inequalities sensitive practice and where there are examples of good practice which could be replicated in other services.

William Edwards, Deputy Chief Executive, NHSGGC

“The Frontline Equality Assessment Tool is a great addition to our processes to enable us to understand and meet the needs of our patients with protected characteristics. Not only will it help us identify where we can take positive action but will also capture where good practice is underway and share across all wards and services.”

Alastair Low, Manager, NHSGGC Equality and Human Rights Team

“Equality legislation can sometimes be seen as distinct or detached from the daily interactions that are at the heart of everything we do. We want to help change that perspective. The time we spend visiting departments will strengthen our understanding of equality legislation and its role in delivering effective, efficient and inclusive services.”

Disability Discrimination Audits (DDAs)

NHSGGC has a duty to remove access barriers for disabled patients. This takes the form of Disability Discrimination Audits (DDA) which involve conducting access audits in partnership with disabled people.

In addition to DDA audits, the Frontline Equality Assessment programme also includes a rapid assessment of a physical environment with proposed enhancements reported back to our Estates and Facilities Directorate.

We are currently carrying out a range of DDAs and FEAT reviews in Acute settings which aim to identify any adaptations required.

Professor Tom Steele, Director of Estates and Facilities

“We know that some aspects of the physical environment can still present barriers for some people who use our buildings. We are committed to a programme of ongoing improvement works as well as deigning space that will act as an enabler to staff, patients, carers and visitors.”