In collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health

Qatar University (QU) College of Pharmacy (CPH) launched an outreach campaign in collaboration with the ministry of public health, Doha Clinic and Aster hospital under the title “Patient Safety Week: Medication Without Harm”.
The campaign aimed to educate the public about medication safety and help them understand about their medication need, risks and proper storage and discarding of medications. The campaign was held over the course of 2 days (September 20th and 21st, 2022) , at both the landmark mall followed by the next day in Qatar University, attracting much audience with whom 900 were counselled and around 220 had their blood pressure and blood sugar tested. It also included different stations set up to allow the public to gain knowledge on various aspects of medication safety.

The first station was raising awareness about safe medication disposal, storage and safe antibiotic use. The Second was disseminating information about the side effects of OTC drugs, different types of inhales and instructions for use. The third station was educating the public about the different type of insulin injections and the instructions for safe use as well as signs of hypoglycemia vs hyperglycemia including coma and what to do in the different situations. Lastly, the fourth station was responsible for monitoring and measuring blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

Dr. Feras Alali, Dean College of Pharmacy visited the booth and stated a few words “It gives me great pleasure to see our College faculty, staff and students lead such an important outreach campaign. While almost anyone uses medication, not everyone is aware of the correct use and discarding of medications. Not only does this outreach campaign serve the public and encourages a healthier Qatar, it also showcases CPH attempts to give all of its students a wide range of chances for real-world learning and application that they can use to build their professional abilities.

Dr. Iman Radwan, Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Consultant at the Ministry of Public Health said, “First I would like to congratulate the faculty and students of the College of pharmacy at Qatar University for setting up this community awareness campaign. The campaign was integrated and highly organized, and we had a pleasure meeting out students. The future medical staff enthusiastically participated in providing scientific and professional consultations and contributed to raising the level of health awareness among various segments of society. This reflects the extent to which the College of Pharmacy at Qatar University is interested in participating in national events and community initiatives that serve the community, the student and the profession, as well as enhancing the student’s role in health education and helping them link theory and practical application and instilling concepts of quality and patient safety from an early age. Many thanks to the College of Pharmacy at Qatar University for this appreciated effort and we look forward to more fruitful cooperation between the Ministry of Public Health and the university. We take advantage of this opportunity to urge everyone; policy makers and program managers, to work collaboratively with academics and researchers to design and implement joint programs aimed at improving the quality and safety of health services in Qatar”.

Dr. Sowndramalingam Sankaralingam, Associate Professor, Clinical Pharmacy and Practice Section, CPH also wanted to encourage the students saying "It was nice to see students from the College of Pharmacy participate in the Patient Safety Week campaign to educate the public on safe and proper use of medications and medical devices. This will certainly have a great impact on patient safety."

Abrar Abdelrahman (QUSRB-CPH female President) and Marwa Elshazly (QPhUS President) commented on the outreach saying, “Medication without harm outreach served as an excellent opportunity for the students to showcase of how critical it is to take good care of the home medications and advice the public on major counseling points for some of the commonly used medications. We are always grateful for these experiences that allow us to give back to the community and contribute to the overall health of the population which satisfies our eagerness to get to the point where we are well-equipped with the knowledge and the confidence to be a successful pharmacists.”
The event concluded and was extremely successful and ended up with mission accomplished to educate the public for a safer and healthier Qatar.