GEORGETOWN, GUYANA, 7 NOVEMBER 2024- The Ministry of Health, with technical support from PAHO/WHO, conducted training sessions in Pharmacovigilance aimed at health professionals from health facilities across Guyana in Region 5 in October 2024. Twenty-eight participants attended the training, including physicians, nurses, medexes, pharmacists, and pharmacists’ assistants from two hospitals and five health Centres.
The monitoring of medicines for safety and quality is an important component of improving access to medicines and achieving universal health. PAHO data show that CARICOM states face challenges in conducting these regulatory functions, in large part because of small populations and small economies. Limited regulatory and supervision capacities can allow patients to use dangerous products such as substandard and falsified medicines and/or medicines with intrinsically unacceptable risks. Thus, a challenge for small states is how to accomplish this work, called “pharmacovigilance”, as effectively and efficiently as possible.
This initiative is part of the Ministry of Health's ongoing process of strengthening the national regulatory system to ensure the safety and quality of medicines available for use in the country.
The training sessions equipped participants with knowledge and skills in Pharmacovigilance, which includes the prevention, monitoring, diagnosis, management and reporting of adverse events and adverse drug reactions that patients may experience with the use of medicines, as well as medication errors. In pharmacovigilance systems, the active participation of health professionals in reporting and managing adverse drug events is critical to ensure and improve patient safety. This training was useful to increase health professionals' awareness of potential adverse effects and their reporting.
On receiving feedback from participants at the end of the training session, 90% of the participants disclosed that it was the first training in Pharmacovigilance they had attended, and most of them expressed interest in receiving continuous training on the topic.
Participants stated that they were more empowered to document and report adverse drug reactions (ADRs) or events since they were provided with the knowledge and skills needed to detect the types of ADRs and the methods of reporting to the national regulatory authority.
To support the strengthening of skills at the regional and health facility levels, more intensive training in Pharmacovigilance and a trainer-of-trainers workshop for designated focal points will be organized.
With continued support from PAHO/WHO, the Ministry of Health, Guyana will conduct these training sessions at health facilities in the country's ten administrative regions.
