Kumasi, July 23, GNA- Ghanaian pharmacists have been told to break away from their traditional roles of only dispensing drugs and start educating the people on health issues.

Dr Lloyd Matowe, a lecturer at the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the Kuwait University in the Middle East, therefore, asked the pharmacists to consider making community outreach programmes their priority.

He was speaking on the topic, "Health Promotion, The role of the Pharmacist", in Kumasi on Wednesday at a lecture organised by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana in collaboration with the Association of Pharmacists at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

It aimed at sensitising the public on the role of the pharmacist in health care delivery in the country.

Dr Matowe said the outreach programmes would help reduce the number of chronic diseases that were on the increase as a result of the inappropriate use of medication, especially in the rural areas. "When you move into the rural areas to mobilise the people and sensitise them on basic health issues, it will go a long way to prevent most epidemic that had plagued the continent of Africa in recent times", he said.

He expressed concern about the way drugs were being advertised on the electronic media and advised that such practices must be critically looked at in order not to endanger the lives of the people.