The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) Goa State Branch, in collaboration with Goa Consumer Action Network (GOACAN), a consumer based organization, organized two workshops on “Patient Safety & Safe Use of Medicines”, as part of the National Pharmacy Week Celebrations, on November 22 in Panaji and on November 24 in Margao, in Goa.

The workshop covered various topics and issues such as – Pharmacist and his roles, about medicines, types and various systems, common measurements and care to be taken, storage, objectionable medicine advertisements, medication errors, prescription safety,  patients’ rights at the pharmacy, Do’s & Don’ts at the pharmacy, etc.

The participants for the day-long workshops were around 150 school and higher secondary teachers, consumer forum members, panchas, college students, who greatly benefited from knowing a huge variety of aspects about medicine safety, which they were ignorant about till now.

The workshop was addressed by Dr Prashant Bhide, Dr M P Joshi and Asmita Korgaonkar, all teaching faculty at Goa College of Pharmacy, Jyoti Sardessai, deputy director, FDA, and Raj Vaidya and Kavita Gaonkar from the IPA.

The lecture sessions were followed by group discussions in which the participants listed out various recommendations for action at their own level, at the level of their institution/village/city and at level of various organization/authorities and stakeholders, concerning patient safety and safe use of medicines.

A large number of participants have made requests for organizing such talks at their village/forum/school/colleges, and IPA and GOACAN will be doing the same very shortly.

The workshop participants were welcomed by Roland Martins, convenor, GOACAN, and Lorna, secretary, GOACAN proposed the Vote of Thanks.