Patients advised to pay attention to details before taking medicine

By Emily Setona

QWAQWA – Community members who have attended World Patient safety day led by Health MEC Montseng Tsiu at Phutidtjhaba multipurpose hall on September 16, have described the event as an opener and informative that will enable them to pay attention to their medication.
World Patient Safety Day is celebrated annually on the 17th of September.

The Free State department of health invited key stakeholders to share with patients, critical awareness and information regarding their safety when it comes to prescription medicine.
One of the participants Makamohelo Mokoena has this to say during an interview with The Guard.

“I appreciate the information that we received and I learned that when I am given medication at the clinic I must check the expiry date and tell the nurse if the date has expired. Another thing I also learned is that family members must not share their medication, it is wrong to do so, everyone must use their own treatment, even painkillers.”

A group of nursing students from Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli hospital did a short role playing exercise that demonstrated to the people in the audience the safety rules and practices that they can follow. There are three easy steps that patients can follow before leaving the clinic when going to collect their chronic medication. One, Patients must always ask the nurse if there is something that they do not understand about their treatment and diagnosis, two, patients must always check the expiry date on their chronic medication before leaving the clinic, and three patients must make sure that they know the type of treatment that they are taking so that if adjustments have to be made they can talk to the nurse about the way that the medication affects them and the changes that might have to be made.

When Speaking to The Guard Coleka Mbushe expressed her excitement at the fact that she won a gift bag for answering a few questions during a Q and A session aimed to engage the audience on the things that they learned during the event. “I feel that these people brought some changes to our lives because I was able to get a pap – smear at the mobile clinic, something that I was not aware of. I am also very happy to have received this gift bag after answering a question correctly.”
Free State department of Health MEC Montseng Tsiu saw it fit kick start this day on the 16th of the month at multipurpose hall in Phuthaditjhaba.

“Our responsibility to our patients as health practitioners is to make sure that patients ask the right questions, check their medication and know their treatment,” Tsiu said.
Tsiu also revealed that purpose of the event was also to bring awareness following outcry from patients of being ill-treated by nurses.

“As the department of health we have realized that our patients are often mistreated at our healthcare institutions, that is why this awareness campaign is very important. Patient safety incidents day is not a celebration but rather an awareness to make patients aware that they should not be harmed when accessing medication and healthcare services from our institutions,” Tsiu said.
She also donated some wheelchairs and assistive medical devices to patients from Maluti-a-Phofung.