Open | Eye-grabbing winning display highlights valuable advice pharmacists can provide

An eye-grabbing display encouraging customers to ask questions to make full use of pharmacists’ expertise about medicines has won Greenlane Clinical Centre Pharmacy the North Island section in a national competition judged by Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne.

The display was created by pharmacist Shirley Coleman for Let’s PLAN for better care pharmacy week, part of the Open for better care national patient safety campaign’s six-month focus on reducing harm from high-risk medicines.

The week was to highlight the valuable advice community and hospital pharmacies can provide customers.

There were a number of strong entries in the display competition, says Mr Dunne. ‘But this one stood out thanks to its arresting use of bright green artificial grass to draw customers’ attention to a very nicely staged selection of Let’s PLAN resources and medicine-related props.

‘You’d have been hard-pressed to walk past this display without taking a closer look and thereby learning more about the role pharmacists can play in ensuring you use your medicines safely.’

Let’s PLAN pharmacy week was an extension of the Health Quality & Safety Commission’s Let’s PLAN for better care health literacy resources – which are built around an A4 sheet that helps patients get the most out of their health care appointments, and suggests questions to ask their pharmacist.

Copies of the sheet were available for customers to take away from pharmacies across the country as part of the week – which the Greenlane pharmacy extended to a month.

‘We had many people stop and look at our display and I’m sure they enjoyed it,’ says Ms Coleman. ‘We talked to as many people as we could about Let’s PLAN, as we were really trying to raise their awareness of it. It made people talk about what they were taking and ask us some questions. We were delighted to be able to use our professional skills to help them.’

The Open campaign is led by the Health Quality & Safety Commission and operates in partnership with the First, Do No Harm patient safety campaign in the Northern region.