The brief

A survey was conducted in the run-up to winter which revealed that 71% of people were not aware that medicines cost the NHS four times more than buying them over the counter.

The CCG estimates that the money saved by not funding paracetamol and ibuprofen prescriptions could provide the NHS in Brighton and Hove with either: 16 more community nurses; 108 more hip replacements; 26 more drug treatment courses for breast cancer; 400 more drug treatment courses for Alzheimer’s; or 416 more cataract operations in a year.

Our solution

We designed an engaging set of illustrational messages in a striking colour palette to visualise the prompts needed to highlight the simple changes that everyone can do to make a collective saving to their local NHS. These illustrational messages were designed to be self explanatory, simple visuals with the requirement of little supporting text.

The #HelpMyNHS campaign and suite of NHS stat infographics were designed to explain the costs associated with GP prescriptions for medicines that are also available to buy over the counter without a prescription at pharmacies. The public healthcare awareness campaign asks local people to help their NHS use available funding more efficiently.

HelpMyNHS posters and leaflets were on display in GP surgeries and pharmacies across the city and NHS services used the hashtag #HelpMyNHS on social media to communicate the facts behind this change of prescription protocol to local people to disseminate the messages.

In the first 12 months the CCG had saved more than £80k on promoting self care.

**Research carried out by NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group via Survey Monkey on Facebook and Twitter

The services delivered for this healthcare awareness campaign included:

• Campaign concept
• Illustration
• Social media template suite
• GP practice screens artwork