Abu Dhabi: Over 100,000 brown bags bearing the slogan ‘Be Safe — Ask Your Pharmacist' are being handed out to residents across Abu Dhabi with the aim of raising public awareness about the importance of medication safety.
Residents are asked to place their daily medication in the brown bag and visit their nearest Abu Dhabi Health Service Company (Seha) health care facility. Specially designed kiosks have also been set up offering medical safety tips to shoppers across six different malls in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region from Wednesday to Saturday.
Pharmacists at hospitals and malls will spend approximately 15 minutes with each person who brings in his or her medicine, speaking about the importance of issues such as dosage, proper storage and disposal of medications.
"The whole idea behind the campaign is to encourage and support the public to play an active role in their medication management and use. We will have paediatric pharmacists available to speak about issues such as child medication and medical storage," Dr Sahar Abu Omar, chairperson of the Medication Safety Committee and Senior Clinical Affairs Specialist at Seha, told Gulf News.
Dr Mariam Butti Al Mazroui, Clinical Affairs manager at Seha, explained that some problems people encounter stem from simple mistakes such as leaving containers open, not taking note of expiry dates and incorrect storage.
"Medication safety is a hot topic and we've been receiving a lot of queries about it. We expect thousands of people to show up during our campaign and have made sure that we have enough health care professionals available to answer people's questions. I expect approximately 300 people a day," Mariam said.
Free advice: where and when
- Be Safe - Ask Your Pharmacist runs from November 18 to 21
Hospitals
- You may bring your medication to one of the kiosks located at any of the Seha facilities, including the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), Tawam Hospital, Al Ain Hospital, Mafraq Hospital, Al Rahba Hospital, Corniche Hospital and Madinat Zayed Hospital.
Malls
- Abu Dhabi - Abu Dhabi Mall, Marina Mall, Khalidiya Mall, Madinat Zayed
- Western Region - City Mall
- Al Ain - Al Bawaadi Mall, Al Ain Mall
Timings
- November 18 to 19 from 10am to 2pm and from 4pm to 10pm
- November 20 from 4pm to 10pm
- November 21 from 10am to 10pm
