Pharmacists are comparatively extra accessible than different healthcare professionals in South Africa. (Picture: Shutterstock)Remark & Evaluation
eleventh November 2025 | Vincent Tlala
Medicines are among the many strongest instruments in healthcare, however additionally they include dangers. As we mark #MedSafetyWeek, Mr Vincent Tlala, registrar and CEO of the South African Pharmacy Council, argues that the secure use of medicines is a shared duty, and isn’t solely as much as pharmacists.
We depend on medicines to forestall sickness, handle persistent situations, or save lives in emergencies.
Nonetheless, medicines may cause hurt when they don’t seem to be used as prescribed, when their uncomfortable side effects go unnoticed, when sufferers keep silent on utilizing different therapies or when they’re abused. Thus, the secure use of medicines should be a joint effort the place regulators, scientists, healthcare professionals and sufferers work collectively.
Each interplay round medication is a chance to make healthcare safer. Since pharmacists are comparatively extra accessible than different healthcare professionals in South Africa and sometimes additionally function the hyperlink between sufferers and prescribers, they’re uniquely positioned to establish dangers, detect uncomfortable side effects early and educate sufferers in regards to the secure use of drugs.
When a pharmacist advises a affected person the way to take medicines appropriately, checks for potential drug interactions in medicines used, or explains why a natural complement could intervene with a affected person’s therapy, that act of care protects the affected person and strengthens the whole healthcare system.
Why disclosure is important
Many sufferers use a mix of prescribed medicines, conventional cures, complementary medicines and over-the-counter medicines. These could work together in dangerous methods, subsequently it is important for customers to inform their pharmacist or healthcare practitioners about all of the medicines and merchandise they’re taking. Even frequent painkillers, natural tonics, or dietary supplements can have an effect on how prescribed medicines work.
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Equally necessary is reporting uncomfortable side effects or sudden reactions. What could seem to be a light rash or dizziness may very well be an early warning signal of a severe opposed drug response. Reporting helps pharmacists, medication producers and the medication regulatory authority to establish potential dangers early and take corrective motion.
What to do
As we marked #MedSafetyWeek to start with of November, the regulator of the pharmacy career within the nation, the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC), is urging pharmacists together with all healthcare professionals and conventional well being practitioners to make medicines security a visual and sustained precedence.
Healthcare professionals may also help by encouraging openness with sufferers and creating an setting the place folks really feel snug discussing all of the medicines they use, together with conventional or different cures. They will additionally make each affected person interplay a chance to coach by explaining how and when to take medicines, why therapy adherence issues, and what uncomfortable side effects to observe for.
Equally important is the necessity for healthcare professionals to report suspected opposed drug reactions to the producer and the nation’s medicines regulatory authority, which is the South African Well being Merchandise Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). Amongst others, opposed drug reactions may be reported by the general public, pharmacists, or different healthcare staff by way of SAHPRA’s Med Security App.
Each report issues as a result of it contributes to our nationwide security surveillance, serving to to detect patterns and enhance public safety. Collaboration throughout disciplines can also be key as a result of when healthcare staff share data, sufferers obtain safer and extra coordinated care.
Pharmacists, particularly, are the custodians of rational medication use. The SAPC continues to uphold this customary by way of training, regulation and advocacy. However it is just by way of collaboration between professionals and with the general public that we are able to create a real tradition of medicines security.
With rising persistent illness burdens, elevated self-medication, and the coexistence of conventional and fashionable healthcare methods, the potential for medication misuse or interplay grows.
From reactive to proactive
To take medicines security critically, we should make a shift from solely responding when hurt happens to actively stopping it. This may be executed by way of communication, coaching and vigilance.
All this begins with belief although. When sufferers belief pharmacists, they disclose extra. When healthcare professionals belief each other, they share information extra freely. And when the general public trusts the system, they take part in it by reporting uncomfortable side effects, asking questions and utilizing medicines responsibly.
Whether or not you’re a pharmacist meting out therapy, a nurse administering a dose, a physician prescribing remedy, or a affected person taking a capsule, you play a task in medicines security. Collectively, we are able to construct a healthcare tradition the place disclosure is inspired, vigilance is regular, and affected person security is non-negotiable.
*Mr Tlala is the registrar and CEO of the South African Pharmacy Council.
Word: Highlight goals to deepen public understanding of necessary well being points by publishing a wide range of views on its opinion pages. The views expressed on this article should not essentially shared by the Highlight editors.
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