This year’s Self Care Week runs from 12–18th November and focuses on ‘Self care for life – growing older healthily’. Run by the Self Care Forum, supported by the Department of Health, the annual campaign is designed to raise awareness of what patients can do to take better care of themselves.
GPs are calling for parents to give their medicine cabinet a makeover, nearly 100% of GPs fear patients are ill-equipped to treat minor illnesses at home – costing the NHS £2 billion a year.
Most families in the UK lack basic medicine cabinet supplies and knowledge needed to treat minor illnesses that can be easily dealt with at home, reveals a new survey of GPs.
Doctors are now calling for patients to put aside an hour to give their medicine cabinets an emergency makeover so they can improve their ability to self care – leaving hard-pressed doctors’ surgeries and A&E departments free to deal with more complex illnesses. According to Dr Paul Stillman, a Crawley GP and Self Care Forum Board member: “We are urging parents to take the first step to do this by taking a look in their medicine cabinets today to check they have everything they need for the winter months and beyond.”
So check out your medicine cabinets have got the basics below:
- A healthcare guide
- First-aid kit including guidebook, plasters, bandages, thermometer, eyewash solution, medical tape, tweezers, sterile dressing, antiseptic lotion/cream
- Painkillers – ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin
- Cold and flu remedies
- Anti-diarrhoea medicine
- Antihistamines
- Oral rehydration salts
- Indigestion remedies
- Sunscreen
And to be in with a chance of winning this swish medicine cabinet tell me what you needed to add or if you were all stocked up in a comment below, for a extra entry share this post on your facebook page or tweet it…
*This medicine cabinet has been offered as a prize for one lucky reader*
Competition ends midnight Sunday 18th 2012
I don’t have a healthcare guide. But I do know how to Google!
Great post and a lovely competition, thank you.
Hmmmm…… I’m afraid to say that I don’t even have a medicine cabinet. I have a bottle of Calpol in the fridge and some plasters in a drawer! I could really do with a proper fully stocked cabinet!! 3 boys = lots of plasters and medicine!!!!
Fab competition – made me re think my attitude to safety in the home. Xxxx
Antihistamine for allergy ridden son, aromatherapy oils in the fridge, rescue remedy and Arnica cream.I don’t even have plasters.
Fantastic competition! I’d add some natural products too – arnica is amazing on bruises. Also yesterday gave myself an ice pack burn (so stupid of me!) and fortunately had Aloe Vera and lavender oil in the house, left over from pregnancy! They stopped it blistering
No cabinet just a tub in the cupboard, no rehydration or diarrhoea tabs…hhmm possibly time to get some though.
My medicine cabinet is pretty well stocked up with the addition of berocca to get me through the winter months and a good multivitamin supplement for my toddler to help his somewhat pesky immune system! Having said that he has bee on a snot monster for ooo about six weeks now
All of the above! Had to chuck our Calpol the other day as it was so far out of date!
I need to get some Calpol, I always ended having to rush out and buy some when my daughter has a high temperature. We don’t have a cabinet tho, just tupperware! Nice competition, thank you
Definitely some Rescue Remedy for my minor panics, some bite cream because Mosquitos love me and some arnica because if there is something to walk into- ill find it!
I have an asthmatic husband & daughter, and another daughter with allergy’s. My son has so many scrapes his legs are constantly red & green. I get headache thinking about it; which I why I need a nice new medicine cabinet to put all the medication in!
I’d add some lavender for burns and Rescue Remedy for stresses.
OMG, I would make such great use of this prize. I would use it as somewhere to stock my prescription and non-prescription meds. It would be so fab to have everything stored in one place. Thanks
I’d add some lavender for burns and Rescue Remedy for stresses.
I’d have to add some Children essentials such as calpol,, teething powder and sudocrem
Eyewash solution, Oral rehydration salts and tweezers – probably more if I had a proper check. It’s one of those things you just don’t think about until you need it in a hurry. Thanks for the reminder, it’s on my list for tomorrow now!
i needed to add healthcare guide out of your list but dont actually need it as my job is healthcare and know all the basics!
I have to add some more plasters, and an essential for me is pregnancy tests!
dont have guide but hubby first aider in WORK
I need somewhere proper to put my tablets
I think it’s all there but would add some rescue remedies.
Mostly stocked up butwill get some Oral rehydration salts hadnt even thought about them great prize make you think
Our medicines are currently kept in the same cupboard as the tea and coffee. Not ideal, I know. It would be great to have somewhere to store my medicines and homeopathic remedies
I don’t have much on the list – a medicine cabinet would be great
need a new first aid booklet as well as mor eplasters wher edo they go
Would like to win this as my medicines are all kept in a kitchen cupboard
I don’t have any first aid stuff around, not even plasters. Odd seeing as I work in a pharmacy
I would love a medicine cabinet, and the first thing I’d put in it would be cough mixture!
An Aloe vera gel as its so healing for burns.
I have everything on the list + more, apart from a healthcare guide , have to with 9 Grandchildren, luckily I rarely have to use anything.
Oh something I should have. Nothing at all in my flat! And that with Christmas around the corner and not being able to have even access to a pharmacy!
super give away, would love to win one, it one of those things you should have but never buy, I realy need to invest at some time now my two small children are getting older.
always keep my first aid kit complete and keep a stock of calpol
I would love to have a medicine cabinet in my house…with old parents and kids ..we don’t have a proper storage place for the medicines.so we would love to have one in our home
We have a medicine drawer, but with winter coming it needs topping up.
Perfect timing ! ..I have just decorated my bathroom, this would be ideal
i dont have a cabinet so this would be brilliant, all my medicines and things to go in one are all sat in my pantry. i have a ton of flu remedys to fill this up with
I had a well stocked medicine cabinet but I gave it to my son when he left home as he is very accident prone and needed it more than me.
I’d add some pain relieving gel, but currently have a plastic tub with a few packs of painkillers so an actual cabinet to store everything safely would be fantastic.
I have most of that list somewhere in one draw or another..
Paracetamol or Nurofen
I need to restock on cold/flu remedies and some Rescue Remedies
Antihistamines
My cabinet is a drawer full of out of date stuff and in a mess, no good if I need it quick, needs a big clear out. Important thing is bite cream, the bugs love to nibble me!
my medicine box is a bit pathetic, with all the coughs & colds going around our family we definitely need to top up on the infant & adult paracetamol!!!
@emmav6
shared on fb too
emma j walters
thought I had almost everything until i checked to find most of my items were out of date and had to be thrown. now need to restock on every thing
We need this for when we are looking after our grandchildren as we are so ill equiped
I started off with good intentions with a large box and had what I thought was everything I would need, but over the year it has been depleted and really needs a good sort out,and replenishing, winning this cabinet would make me make an effort.
I don’t have a proper medicine cabinet – just a shelf in the top of the kitchen unit and it is choc full! Lol I think I may be a little of a hypochondriac!
I am generally all stocked up…someone in the house always gets poorly during the night!
Plasters and liquid paracetamol for youngest son. Eldest son needs nothing. Feverfew and painkillers for me
Got to be a Hangover cure
I haven’t got a medicine cabinet.
I have some painkillers but that is about it. The first thing I would buy for the cabinet is antiseptic cream as I get lots of scratches trying to put cream on my cats sore neck.
Could really do with a medicine cabinet as I can never find where I’ve put the plasters when I need one. At least then I’d have somewhere to keep the painkillers, plasters, etc.
I’d also keep my hydrocortisone cream in there for eczema flare ups
I really need to stock up on medicines – we’ve been falling like flies in this house the last few weeks.
All fully stocked!
I dont have Oral rehydration salts, they taste bad
I would add arnica, you need arnica when you’re raising boys 
I tend to only have paracetamol in stock so it would be great to have a fully stocked cabinet. Best to be prepared…
Like a lot of people I suspect, my household medicines are scattered all over the house. Would be lovely and much safer I am sure, to have them all in one place. Yes please!
gaviscon would be make it suited to my household !
To have a medicine cabinet in one place would be great. Everything in one place. No need to search the whole house!
i am bout to become a foster carer of young children. I would welcome this essential piece of kit
I don’t even have a medicine cabinet. I have a bottle of Calpol in the fridge and some plasters in a kitchen cupboard. I could really do with a proper fully stocked cabinet.share this post on my facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/emma.cella1/posts/169199413223366
Great give away. It is very well stocked but I would add Capol and some vitamins.
Always need plasters
has to be calpol
We don’t have one either unfortunately but should really get one. We have lots of drugs in the house for a range of illnesses
I need to add antihistamines as I sometimes get hayfever
I have too many medicines to list and as i have a child, this would be brilliant to keep everything in the right place
Oh I have a kitchen cupboard bulging with meds – they need a new home
This would be fab x
Have also tweeted here:
https://twitter.com/MrsD_Winchester/status/269906138517102594
Thank you
x
I’d love a medicine cabinet and would put all my asthma medication in it
We have a first aid box and a another box for medicine….but I haven’t checked either for quite some time, I think maybe I should, winter is on its way along with all of its coughs and colds.
Medicines are in an Ice-cream tub at the moment
would love to have one of these to keep medicine out of reach of my fast growing baby
I have an old biscuit tin full of the basics. I need to stock up on sunscreen but I think it can wait a few months brrrrr!
I have all the medicines and have checked they are in date. I do need a first aid kit though, and a health care booklet, plus somewhere to keep them other than in a box on top of the fridge freezer!
All of the above! Had to chuck our Calpol the other day as it was so far out of date!
I’ve only got Ibruprofen and Sun cream – guess I’d better go shopping!
I have recently added reflux meds for new baby to meds in our bedroom where all our 5 yr olds meds are kept. I need the space back and would love a meds cabinet. Cal pol and sudocreams are my top 2 must haves
We need a bigger cabinet how we have kids but we need a good stock up all round. We have some medicines, plasters etc but really need a basic kit.
In my cupboard I have a box with some plasters and a couple of years old tatty bandages, a bottle of calpol and some cough medicine.
I really should be more organised in that respect, I have two very active and accident-prone youngsters, so this medicine cabinet would be put to good use in my house – and look great in my bathroom too 😉 x
I’ve an old medcine cabinet which my husband made 30 years ago andit lives in the kitchen. He reckons thats where most accidents might happen and therefore you’d need plasters etc more in the kitchen! We’ve now just had our bathroom done, and I’d love this one you are offering as a prize to fit in the space to the side of the sink. It looks bare and i’ve been wondering what to put there.
(theyd be handy for bee stings. Living on a farm, we get a few of them!
This would be ideal and then i could put in a whole new set of tablets and our regular medcines. There are times when you are ill, and need regular paracetamols etc and having to traipse downstairs is not good when you’ve a cold..This would keep me and my husband very happy.
I’d also keep my tweezers in there because wherever i put them, my daughter borrows them and loses them. She’d never think to look in the medcine cabinet
Fingers crossed. I’ll tweet too. @mummycat111
This is ideal for our family, as I have three children who are all quite immune to illness. My husband has coeliacs and lactose intollerance and I have several illnesses which require me to take a lot of different tablets each day. As you can see, our family needs this medicine cabinet.
I have to admit that some of the contents of my bathroom cabinet are a bit out of date! x
I need Oral rehydration salts
I have tweeted
@snarepuss
I need some plasters
no cabinet just a tub in the cabinet in bathroom,
we have quite a “healthy” medicine stash but it needs some order!
I’d add some safety pins and an arm sling. The cabinet would be absolutely awesome as we currently leave all our meds in a wicker basket and with a new dog joining the family soon we will need to put them out of his reach…
I’ve got most of your list but I really need to go through them and check the ‘use by’ dates. May not be so smug then!
Great reminder and a great prize.
I have some of them but not all!
My medicine cabinet is currently a cardboard box! Would love to win
You’ve reminded me to check the dates on cold medicines that I have from last year – thank you!
My medicine cabinet is quite poor really. I store anything medical in the top cupboard in my kitchen
I don’t have a medicine cabinet – really want one though as at the moment I have mine in an old ice-cream tub! Need to get some arnica gel for sore muscles and bruises.
My medicine cabinet is my bathroom shelf which holds some Calpol and some plasters for when I cut myself while shaving my legs!
I would need to add the Rehydration Salts to my meds cupboard
I have a medicine drawer that is so messy so this would be really handy, I would stock up on my cold and flu tablets
everything here apart from thermometer. need to get one!
I have a medicine drawer too! I think one of the most important things for first aid is a pair of latex gloves – makes it so much easier to clean cuts and grazes up!
Definitely would need to stock up on paracetamol and indigestion relief and now we’re in to winter some lemsip is bound to be required soon!
I have more medicines than storage space so this would be fantastic,great to have storage high enough so little hands can’t reach.
I have a good selection of things but this would be great to keep everything together and stored safely
Wow fab prize – all my medicine are stored in an old biscuit tin
Should include a small jar of honey (manuka 10+) as it so beneficial and gives for sore throats, excellent for dealing with minor burns, healing cuts and clearing up skin fungal.
Got quite a few bits and pieces, although this has prompted me to check the expiry dates on things. What I do need is somewhere safe to keep them all away from the kids and the dog! This would be perfect x
I actually have all of the items listed PLUS MORE!!
My son has Cystic Fibrosis so we literally look like a pharmacy!
We keep our medicines in various baskets in a kitchen cupboard, so it would be great if we won this sleek looking cabinet!
My cabinet is much too small this would be perfect. I always keep woundwash spray, antiseptic throat spray and essential antihistamine pills and inhalers.
Funnily enough, we’ve got a cabinet which contains everything on the list, First Aid book and health dictionary on the shelf and we’re qualified in First Aid. So we’re all stocked up but thankfully rarely have to resort to any of it.
I have painkillers and bandages but nothing else. Ooops!
Would love to win this to put our supplies in to keep them all safe. We need rehydration salts
Antiseptic lotion is always handy as my son always grazing his knee plus cold and flu medicines at this time of year would or in very handy.