The theme for the 2017 Ask Your Pharmacist (AYP) Week will be Discover Your Local Pharmacy, the National Pharmacy Association has announced. This year’s AYP Week will run from 6-13 November.

As a core element of the campaign, the NPA will supply resources to help pharmacies hold Discover Your Local Pharmacy open days. Open days could be used to:

• Promote a specific new or existing service
• Provide free blood pressure checks
• Invite local dignitaries and politicians to visit for a health check and learn more about services on offer
• Invite customers and patients to take part in the NPA’s online Discover your Local Pharmacy Quiz
• Offer lifestyle advice in a particularly engaging way, such as an interactive display of safe alcohol limits. 

AYP Week serves as a platform for pharmacy public awareness activities throughout the UK, and can help to initiate conversations with local customers and stakeholders about what pharmacy can offer, the NPA said.

The Association says that more information on this year’s campaign will be announced shortly, including details of how to order campaign materials. 

NPA head of communications Stephen Fishwick said: “This year’s initiative is very much about the network of pharmacy premises, what happens inside them and the people who work there. AYP Week is just one of many NPA awareness activities that promote the benefits of the locally based pharmacy service proposition: [a service that is] accessible, caring, expert, responsive and community based.”