The positive impacts of pharmacists in supporting medication without harm are described in a new publication from FIP released today. FIP’s new reference document, entitled “Patient safety — Pharmacists’ role in ‘Medication without harm’”, provides information about what pharmacists can do to promote patient safety at an individual patient level, as well as at organisational and policy development levels.

“Medication safety has become a global emergency and many nations are placing it on their national health priority agendas. Regardless of whether pharmacists provide direct or indirect patient care, they all have a role in promoting safe and quality health care,” said Parisa Aslani, professor in medicines use optimisation at The University of Sydney, Australia, and co-editor of the document. Case studies of best practice from Australia, Canada, Finland, India, the Netherlands, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the USA are to be found in the document, which is available here.

“The common challenges facing pharmacists include increasingly complex medicines, polypharmacy and ensuring optimal transitions of care for our patients in spite of fragmented healthcare systems or models of service delivery. There is also the often-reported issue of being under-resourced and time-poor. We can learn a lot from each other, and this reference paper is a personal and professional challenge to all pharmacists to keep patient safety at the forefront of practice and to take new steps towards safer care. We all are advocates of patient safety. As pharmacists, we are particular advocates of medication safety,” Professor Aslani added.