MOWE-03 - Sharing ideas of member organisations: The Pharmacists’ Defence Association & The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana

Meeting room 2.40

Introduction

FIP member organisations will present their best initiatives and challenges.

Programme

08:00 – 08:05 Introduction by the chair
08:05 – 08:25 MOWE-0301 – How we promoted pharmacy, enabling it to play a significant role in the UK’s national vaccination programme
Mr Mark Koziol & Ms Alison Jones
Community pharmacists are now the trusted providers of vaccination programmes in the UK delivering a very large proportion of the nation’s vaccinations. It is now trusted by the public and other healthcare professions, but it wasn’t always that way.

This session describes what was done by the PDA in the UK to promote and support the role of pharmacists in the important area of vaccine provision. It describes how it was possible to overcome objections of doctors and the programme that was undertaken to enable pharmacists to become one of the principal providers in the overall national vaccination programme. It deals with associated issues showing how pharmacy’s unique positioning in society can be used to tackle things like vaccination hesitancy and vaccination safety as well as professional indemnity.

The session also considers what things went wrong along the way and the lessons that can be learned by pharmacy leadership organisations.
08:25 – 08:45 MOWE-0302 -Pharmaceutical care for the flooded and displaced victims of the Akosombo Dam spill at Aklamador Safe Haven in Ghana
Dr Samuel Kow Donkoh
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) provided pharmaceutical care for 179 victims at the Aklamador Safe Haven in the Volta region of Ghana after the flooding of their homes by the spillage of the Akosombo Dam. The PSGH also renewed the health insurance of 425 members outside the haven, between the ages of 18 and 69 years, at no cost to the members.

The pharmaceutical care needs of the displaced victims included counselling, untreated indications, inactive health insurance, missed medications, and exacerbation of known conditions. Conditions identified during the outreach were mostly related to musculoskeletal/neuropathic pain abdominal discomfort, uncontrolled hypertension, skin conditions, UTI/STI and respiratory tract conditions and cough.
Pharmacists’ interventions included medicine reconciliation, medicine history taking, patient counselling, medication adherence assessment, and vaccine need assessment. Individuals identified as being in a state of hypertensive urgency were linked to care with a 10-day supply of antihypertensives.