With this year’s theme of World Patient Safety Day (17 September) being ‘Medication Safety Without Harm’ it was a great day for pharmacies and pharmacy staff to get behind the campaign and help champion medicine safety within their communities.
World Patient Safety Day is also a great reminder for patients and pharmacies about the harm caused by unsafe medicine practices and errors with medicines, says Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President Dr Fei Sim.
“Pharmacists are the custodians of medicine safety and play a significant role in making sure that our patients are safe when taking medicines,” says Dr Sim.
“A large part of our role as pharmacists is to talk with our patients to promote the highest standards of medicine safety to ultimately reduce the risks that lead to medicine errors and medicine-related harm.
“This is why pharmacists need to be embedded everywhere that medicines are used.”
Dr Sim says that while medicine safety is the responsibility of healthcare providers, it’s also the responsibility of patients themselves.
“On this World Patient Safety Day, we urge all Australians to check their medicine cabinet, check expiry dates, and throw away any expired medication,” says Dr Sim.
“It is vital that all patients know their medications and always take them as instructed to avoid medicine harm.
“If you are unsure about anything related to your medicines, go and speak to your local pharmacist.
“While World Patient Safety Day is a great reminder of our goal to reduce medicine-related harm, we must practise safe medicine practises every day,” says Dr Sim.
