Bayer Middle East successfully trains 200 pharmacists on skills needed in understanding patient needs

For the 4^th year in a row, Bayer Middle East organized a regional training workshop for pharmacists from 11 countries to equip them with the necessary skill sets required to work with patients.

• Workshop is part of Bayer Prestige Club’s continuous initiative that aims to encourage the development of pharmacists according to World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s (FIP) seven-star concept, which describes a pharmacist as a caregiver, communicator, decision-maker, teacher, lifelong learner, leader and manager.¹ The event saw the attendance of pharmacists from Middle East countries including UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, KSA, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon
• For the first time this year, pharmacists from Turkey attended the conference to learn from the Middle East experience
• Through interactive workshops conducted by industry experts, the pharmacists were provided key insight on working with time management, financial understanding and maximizing positivity and minimizing stress

In the constantly evolving healthcare space in the MENA region, pharmacists are increasingly playing a critical role of providing a more patient-centric approach that requires them to deliver the key service of medication management, medication reconciliation, prophylaxis services (initial screening), education, behavioral counseling and managing the pharmacy model effectively. Bayer Middle East brought together more than 200 pharmacists and industry experts to conduct a two-day workshop that was aimed at equipping the pharmacist with the skill-sets required to fulfill the seven-star concept.

Over the last ten years, government authorities and their related agencies have expressed interest in increasing awareness on the significant role played by proper and reliable health care, which in turn, positively shows in the efforts to relieve governments from the big burden of services. An example of this can be seen in the cases wherein patients with non-complex and mild symptoms (i.e. cough, cold, flu, gastro, derma, allergy, pain relief, and nutritionals) patients who are directed to the pharmacies in addition to the well-developed prophylaxis segment, which includes vitamin deficiency and heart disease.

As such, Bayer continues to remain steadfast to its commitment of empowering today’s pharmacists throughout the Middle East in order for these professionals to diligently and excellently perform their role in the health care segment. Looking to address this challenge, Bayer has established the Prestige club, which is geared towards furthering this empowerment and developing the future generation of pharmacists for the region.

It is common in the Middle East that the pharmacist becomes the first point of contact for patients and it is very critical for them to be able to distinguish one case from the other, recommend doctor supervision and aim to reduce patient suffering. The workshop has helped them to not only learn from experts but through interaction with colleagues from different countries and sharing experiences.

“Training pharmacists to become experts in providing pharmaceutical care is a part of our on-going global efforts to recognize the important role they play in the healthcare infrastructure to support patient needs. We strongly encourage the development of our pharmacists to become seven-star experts, where pharmaceutical partnership is very important to increase the level of awareness among patients and towards achieving the ultimate goal of providing distinguished service to the patients at Arab World.” said Mohamed Galal, Vice President- Head of Consumer Health Division Bayer Middle East.

The concept of seven-star pharmacists, which was launched by WHO and FIP in November 2006, is aimed to address the need of pharmacists to meet the ever-increasing health demands--an ever-growing and complex range of medicines, and the evolution of the pharmacist’s role into a more patient-centric approach (known as pharmaceutical care).¹ The workshop was received with great enthusiasm by the attendees with many of them eager to learn how to solve the challenges and provide best service to patients.