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About Home Health Care

Home Health Care is the equipment and supplies side of the pharmacy rather than the medicine side. The largest part is medical essentials — monitoring devices, first-aid supplies, supports and braces, consumables such as dressings and gloves, and adult continence products. Alongside those sit home beauty devices and a smaller wellness and comfort section.

Before you buy a device

• Check what the device needs to keep working: batteries, cuffs, probe covers, test strips or replacement filters. The running cost is often the larger one.
• Blood-pressure monitors are sized by arm circumference, and a cuff that does not fit gives readings that are wrong rather than readings that are missing. Measure first.
• Supports and braces are sized by measurement, not by clothing size, and left and right are usually not interchangeable.
• Consumables carry expiry dates and sterile packaging. Check both, and restock a first-aid kit by date rather than by how full it looks.

A device you use at home measures or supports — it does not diagnose. A reading that worries you is a reason to speak to a doctor, not a reason to buy a second device. If you are choosing equipment for someone recovering at home or living with a long-term condition, our pharmacist can help you match it to what has actually been advised.