Government officials mark launch of Ask About Medicines Week
Rosie Winterton with John Gibson, pharmacist manager at Lloydspharmacy,
Fallowfield |
Health ministers and chief pharmaceutical officers for England and Wales marked the launch of Ask
About Medicines Week earlier this week.
Health minister Rosie Winterton visited Lloydspharmacy in Fallowfield,
Manchester, where she launched a leaflet produced by the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society to educate the public about antibiotic use.
Jim Smith, chief pharmaceutical officer for England, accessed information
from new medicine guides for cholesterol lowering treatments via an internet
terminal at Fairview Pharmacy in Middlesex.
At the launch in Wales, attended by Jane Hutt, health and social services
minister for Wales, Don Wilkes, assistant pharmaceutical and prescribing
manager, Pembrokeshire Local Health Board, said: “This week should
not be seen as an isolated opportunity for action but as a springboard
for the continuing development of the partnership between patients and
health professionals.”
As part of AAMW, MORI has released results from a new poll involving
1,864 adults. It revealed that 44 per cent of people who have been prescribed
a new medicine during the past year think that they do not know enough
about alternative treatment options and medicine choices available to
them. One in three (34 per cent) think that there is not enough information
available about the risks and benefits of medicines. Around half of the
people asked, cited pharmacists as useful sources of information about
prescribed medicines. Newer sources of information, such as NHS Direct
and the internet, were less likely to be considered useful (both mentioned
by 14 per cent). |
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