Pharmacists and pharmacy students across the globe celebrated the World Pharmacists Day today by relying on the important fact that access to pharmacists is access to health. World pharmacists day highlights the role of pharmacists in public health and the positive benefits they offer when it comes to health.

Each year welcomes a new theme, the theme of this year is, ‘access to pharmacists is access to health’.  Access to medicines is a major issue in many parts of the world and pharmacists play a key role in improving access to medicines.

Doctor of Pharmacy Association (DPA) encourages all its members and pharmacy professionals to get involved in activities and campaigns to  showcase the good work they do in helping to improve the health of people around the world. This can include giving blood donation camps, patient counselling, holding exhibitions, conferences, awareness walks, etc.

The Association stressed that the government should utilise the professional expertise of pharmacists, as international experience shows  that expanding the role of the pharmacist improves public health. In other countries , pharmacists are  used as a valuable and integral resource in the delivery of additional services including the management  of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, vaccination against several infectious illnesses,  medicine use reviews and the treatment of minor ailments.

World Pharmacists Day was the brainchild of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), which was conceptualised during the 2009 FIP Congress held in Istanbul, Turkey, wherein it was  unanimously accepted by the Council to organise World Pharmacists Day on September 25 the day that FIP was founded in  1912.