25 Mar SAHPRA participates in SAPHEX 2024
Johannesburg – The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) participated in the fifth edition of 2024 South African Pharmaceutical Exhibition (SAPHEX) / The Pharmacy Show (TPS) during 13-14 March 2024, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
The Pharmacy Show provides over 40 hours CPD accredited content and two (2) dedicated conference theatres to ensure that everyone involved in supplying, marketing, and supporting the South African and Southern African Development Community (SADC) healthcare sector is kept abreast of the latest developments, practical training, and advice to expand their knowledge and improve patient outcomes. Furthermore, this event allowed delegates to access over 200 exhibitors displaying their products and services to the pharmacy world in one place across two (2) days.
SAHPRA had an opportunity to showcase the Med Safety App and reporting of adverse events (AEs) at its exhibition stall. During both days, SAHPRA’s Pharmacovigilance Unit had an excellent turnaround of delegates at their stall. These delegates expressed compliments and challenges regarding services provided by the Regulator. Compliments shared included the improved, user-friendly and easy to navigate SAHPRA website. Challenges raised included prolonged timelines on registration applications submitted to SAHPRA. The Regulator will take into consideration all challenges raised by delegates.
SAHPRA’s Pharmacovigilance Unit’s Medicine Regulatory Officers, Mrs Victoria Sekiti and Ms Busisiwe Mosane, delivered a presentation on Awareness and Reporting of Medication Errors (MEs), during a 60-minute presentation session. MEs have a negative impact on the healthcare system as they increase healthcare costs and may expose or place patients at harm, such as death, life-threatening and disability or permanent damage. However, the true burden of MEs in South Africa is grossly underestimated because of underreporting, mainly due to the lack of knowledge to identify MEs by healthcare professionals (HCPs). Attendees of the session, mainly HCPs, were provided with relevant information to enable ease of ME identification in their facilities. Furthermore, HCPs were encouraged to mitigate MEs by reporting these errors to SAHPRA via Med Safety App and other reporting tools available on the SAHPRA website: www.sahpra.org.za. Additionally, HCPs were reassured that reporting of MEs, and any other AEs is not an admission of guilt, and also that the identity of the reporter and the patient is kept strictly confidential by SAHPRA.
If you need more information on the Med Safety App, you’re on the right website – simply go to this link: https://medsafety.sahpra.org.za/. Also, remember you can download the app at your Google Play or App Store.