Care Homes: homely remedies

A ‘care home’ can be of any size (number of residents) or have any type of resident (children, older people, people with cognitive impairment, young disabled people, people with a learning disability), and should be a registered provider of care, for example, in England, with either the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).1

Care home staff have a recognised duty of care to be able to respond to minor ailments/self-limiting conditions experienced by residents. A homely remedy is an over-the-counter (OTC) product for the short-term treatment of minor ailments such as indigestion, coughs, mild-to-moderate pain, constipation, and other minor and self-limiting conditions. They can be obtained without a prescription to treat a condition when the person would not normally need to seek medical care or treatment.

This bulletin produced by PrescQIPP for the NHS outlines recommendations for the use of homely remedies in care homes.

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