The National Pharmacy Association and Allergy UK provided free allergy screening to the public at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show from 7-12 July. Over 7,000 members of the public picked up information on community pharmacy allergy screening or asked for advice and 75 allergy screenings were carried out.

Jules Payne, Deputy Chief Executive, Allergy UK said: “Allergy UK has done a lot of shows over the years and, without a doubt, this was the best show we have ever done. A lot of the people we spoke to clearly had very real allergic/intolerant problems. Even though people were out for a nice day out, it proved added value to them. People were also picking up the information for their friends and family.”

Stephen Foster, Community Pharmacist (Pierremont Pharmacy, Broadstairs, Kent) said: “Allergy screening was very well received by the public at Hampton Court and the event has proved to be a successful way of raising the profile of the service. I would like to see pharmacy engaged with more events like this in the future.”

John Turk, Chief Executive, National Pharmacy Association said: “Hampton Court Palace Flower Show gave us the opportunity to engage with the public about community pharmacy allergy screening on our members behalf. The community pharmacy service has been running just about year so we wanted an event to showcase the service where we could put into practice what pharmacy is all about - speaking with the public face to face.”

“The Show has proved that there is clearly a demand for allergy screening at primary care level. The feedback, from those who talked to us at Hampton Court, was that community pharmacy is the right place to help people with their allergies.”

Source
The National Pharmacy Association