Spotlight on Medication Safety in Multicultural Health Week

This week is Multicultural Health Week, with the theme ‘working together for safe, quality care, putting the spotlight on medication safety.

The week aims to raise awareness about the importance of communication  between healthcare  professionals and their patients, and the impact good communication can have on improving medication safety.

The NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service has partnered with Clinical Excellence Commission and NPS MedicineWise  to coordinate Multicultural Health Week, in consultation with Multicultural Health Services in Local Health Districts across NSW.

NPS MedicineWise Executive Manager of Program Delivery, Gloria Antonio, said millions of people take medicines each day, but knowing as much as possible about their medicines can help to avoid medicine mishaps.

“No medicine is completely free of side effects, but asking your health professional questions and finding out as much as you can about your medicines will help you understand the risks and benefits, avoid side effects, and enjoy better health,” she said.

“Everyone has a role to play in their own health care and safety. We encourage people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to ask for a free professionally trained interpreter when you’re in hospital or at a doctor’s appointment, keep a list of regular medicines you take including any complementary or traditional medicines, and bring the list to the hospital with you,” Ms Antonio said.

With the increasing diversity of patients in Australia there is a need to address culture and language within the health system.

Professor Cliff Hughes, Chief Executive Officer Clinical Excellence Commission  said that health professionals have an active role to play in ensuring that they assess their patient’s cultural and linguistic needs, obtain informed consent and consider their health beliefs, needs and values.  Professor Hughes emphasised that the health system is responsible for keeping all patients, including those from multicultural backgrounds, safe by providing interpreters,  access to multilingual information resources, and using techniques such as the Teach Back method, which allows clinicians to gauge a patient’s understanding of the health information they’ve received.

Mr Peter Todaro,  Director of the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service  encourages all healthcare organisations to continue to develop and use in-language health resources as part of their daily care of multicultural patients.

For more information, visit www.multiculturalhealthweek.com