News Winter Health and Wellbeing Support The NHS are reaching out to local people, groups and communities to help support your health and wellbeing this winter. Along with the current pressures in the NHS, winter brings more extreme challenges. Cold weather can lead to a potent mix of flu, slips, trips and falls, winter vomiting bugs and respiratory conditions that affect not only people in our communities, but NHS staff too. With hospital emergency departments already busy, admissions increasing and GP surgeries often overwhlemed, patients can end up waiting longer for care. With this in mind, it's more important than ever that local people have access the most appropriate suuport, advice and guidance to help manage your health and wellbeing over the winter period. Guidance and Advice Below are a series of links to a selection of NHS and Healthwise booklets you may find useful, with guidance on services that are available, who to contact when, health advice, vaccination information and more: Getting The Right Support For Your Child Choosing The Right Support At The Right Time Stay Well There are a range of health services in Lancashire to support you if you feel unwell or have health concerns. You can find out more by clicking here. Aside from your GP, you can also see another general practice expert such as advanced nurse practitioners, social prescribing link workers, and healthcare assistants, which can save time by reducing the number of appointments needed for you to get the right care. You can find out more about this here. Information via Social Media The NHS and local health care organisations will be sharing messages over the coming weeks to provide advice and support for the winter period, including falls prevention, loneliness and social isolation, common childhood illnesses and keeping mentally well. You can take a look at the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Care Board Facebook and X (previously Twitter) pages for regular updates.