• The evidence
• Our vision
• Support

The evidence

Around 80% of all care in the UK is self-care.  The majority of people feel comfortable in managing everyday minor ailments like coughs and colds themselves; particularly when they feel confident in recognising the symptoms and have successfully treated using an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine before. 

 

On average, people in the UK experience nearly four symptoms every fortnight, the three most common being feeling tired/run down, headaches and joint pain, and most of these are managed in the community without people seeking professional healthcare.¹

What happens when people give up on self-care?
Despite people’s willingness to initially self-treat, there are still 57 million GP consultations a year for minor ailments at a total cost to the NHS of £2 billion and taking up an hour a day on average for every GP.²
Research shows that people often abandon self-care earlier than they need to, typically seeking the advice of a doctor within a period of 4-7 days.³ 

The main reasons for this are:

• Lack of confidence in understanding the normal progress of symptoms (e.g. a cold can last up to 14 days)
• The perceived severity and duration of symptoms
• Reassurance that nothing more serious is wrong
• A prescription to ‘cure’ the illness, even though the same medicine may be available over-the-counter⁴

Changing behaviour
Case studies of some of the successful initiatives already being carried out across the UK to encourage self-care can be found on the Self Care Forum website.   Often just simple changes aimed at meeting the needs of local communities can be very effective.  These include giving patients the information they need to care for minor ailments, signposting people to the appropriate local services and outreach work to provide health advice in non-traditional settings such as pubs and job centres. 

In the GP consultation itself, GPs often engage in behaviour that enforces patient’s reliance on the doctor but involving patients in their care through shared decision making has proved to be a successful approach to overcoming these barriers.  This has led the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to develop an online learning module, 'Self Care for Minor Ailments', which is aimed at developing GP consultation skills to support self-care for patients. 

The Joining Up Self-care in the NHS research project was conducted in Erewash PCT (Derbyshire) and involved a range of interventions to promote self-care in the PCT, focussing on three disease-related areas; coronary heart disease (CHD), asthma and minor ailments. The outcomes included an increase in mothers’ willingness to self treat many children’s minor ailments, as well as a more positive attitude towards self-care among health professionals and PCT managers.

The benefits
Increased self-care brings many benefits, not only for the individual, but for clinicians, the NHS, government and society as a whole: 

The individual

• Empowering people with the confidence to look after themselves when they can, and visit the GP when they need to, gives people greater control of their own health and encourages healthy behaviours that help prevent ill health in the long-term. 
• Giving people the information to know which NHS services to use and when means, in many cases, people can self-treat minor ailments using effective OTC treatments without the inconvenience of waiting for a GP appointment. 
• If people take greater responsibility for their health and successfully self-care for minor ailments, it helps them better manage long-term conditions when they develop.

Clinicians and the NHS

• Reducing the number of GP consultations for minor ailments would free up time to enable GPs to focus on caring for higher risk patients, such as those with co-morbidities, the very young and elderly, managing long-term conditions and providing new services.
• More cost-effective use of the NHS allows money to be spent where it’s most needed and improve health outcomes. 

Government

• Appropriate use of the NHS reduces pressure on stretched budgets; GP consultations for minor ailments currently cost the NHS £2 billion a year. 

Society

• Increased personal responsibility around healthcare will ultimately improve people’s health and wellbeing and help ensure the long-term sustainability of the NHS.