Most of the symptoms dealt with by the community pharmacist will be of a minor and self-limiting nature and should resolve within a few days. However, sometimes this will not be the case and it is the pharmacist’s responsibility to make sure that patients know what to do if they do not get better. Here, a defined timescale should be used, as suggested in the relevant sections of this book, so that when offering treatment the pharmacist can set a time beyond which the patient should seek medical advice if symptoms do not improve. The ‘Treatment timescales’ outlined in this book naturally vary according to the symptom and sometimes according to the patient’s age, but are usually less than 1 week. Pharmacists are likely to be increasingly involved in the management of long-term chronic or intermittent conditions. Here, monitoring of progress is important and a series of consultations is likely
rather than just one.