Barnet residents urged to check their drinking habits at the pharmacy

Barnet residents are being encouraged to keep their beer and wine drinking in check by visiting local pharmacies for advice on cutting their weekly alcohol consumption.

The new Ask Your Pharmacist service, organised by Barnet Council’s public health team, gives residents the chance to access advice and support on ways to reduce their weekly alcohol consumption, have their levels of drinking assessed and discover ways to track how many units they are drinking each day, all during a simple visit to their nearest participating pharmacy.

Pharmacists taking part in the initiative will be able to give advice on how much alcohol is contained in different drinks and how to convert this into units.

The council is also piloting a scratch card which provides a simple way for pharmacists to help residents confidentially assess whether they might be drinking at levels that could put their health at risk.

Barnet Council claims one in ten people in the borough drink at a level which actually puts their health at risk.

Cllr Helena Hart, cabinet member for public health, said: “It is so easy to lose track of how much one can be drinking over the course of a week and that can have implications for a person’s health.

“This initiative makes it easy for people to pop into a pharmacy to assess - in confidence - how much they are drinking and to get hold of some handy advice on how to reduce their alcohol consumption if they need to.”

For details of participating pharmacies, visit www.barnet.gov.uk/ask-your-pharmacist