The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) Ghana has adjudged the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital’s Pharmacy Department as the best compared to other health facilities in the country, after a review of its pharmacovigilance reports.

This achievement was made known in 2022 after a review of its 2021 reports by the FDA. This is contained in the LENS, the official mouthpiece of the FDA Ghana.

Pharmacovigilance, also known as drug safety, is the pharmaceutical science relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects associated with pharmaceutical products.

These spontaneous adverse reports on patients on treatment, are made by health workers (particularly doctors and pharmacists) and submitted to the FDA for causality assessment.

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has safety monitoring contact for pharmacists in all clinical departments. Their duty is to collaborate with other health workers to identify and report adverse effects involving drugs, contrast media, medical devices, blood and submit these to the FDA.

The Pharmacy Department reported over 120 adverse events in 2021. This placed them at the top of the chart and gained the Hospital more credibility.

Due to this achievement, Pharmacist Stella Selassie Ahiate, a Senior Pharmacist and safety monitoring person at the Anti–Retroviral Therapy (ART) Adherence Counselling Unit, has been selected as the focal person for the Greater Accra Region.

In an interview, she noted that the recognition of performance from the FDA is a milestone that proves the positive impact pharmacists and other health workers make by monitoring the safety of drugs in the hospital.

Pharm Ahiate, who is also passionate about patient safety and the rational use of drugs (medicines), believes that the role of a pharmacist is to ensure that patients obtain the best therapeutic outcome from their treatment.