Pharmacy clinic meets street festival

From left to right: Senior Professional Practice Fellow Dr HeeSeung Lee, student Emma Fotheringham, Senior Professional Practice Fellow Sarah Case, and Lead of the Pharmacy Clinic Emma Smith, who worked together to support the outreach activity.

Kaimahi at Otago's Pharmacy Clinic He Rau Kawakawa Whare Haumanuwere determined to make themselves known at this year's South Dunedin Street Festival.

On Saturday, 8 March, the Pharmacy Clinic set up a stall on King Edward Street and invited members of the public to get their blood pressure and heart rate checked, amongst other activities.

Senior Professional Practice Fellow Dr HeeSeung Lee organised the team's involvement at the festival, alongside Pharmacy Clinic Lead Emma Smith, Senior Professional Practice Fellow Sarah Case, Administrator Dominique Imrie, and School of Pharmacy students.

"The Pharmacy Clinic offers free medicine assessments and consultations to members of the public," Emma says.

Dr HeeSeung Lee, who works in the Pharmacy Clinic, said their participation was aimed at connecting with the locals and increasing people's awareness of the Clinic's services.

"We decided to meet people where they are at and host a stall at the festival to make people aware we exist and that we can help them in a very practical way."

Many pharmacy students helped with the event including Wenyi Ma and Hope Wanchan (pictured here), as well as Anna Dang, Thy Phan, Naomi Knox and Emma Fotheringham (not pictured).

The Clinic's services are for those who take a lot of medications, are unsure why they are prescribed certain drugs, or have questions or concerns regarding their medications, HeeSeung says.

"The Pharmacy Clinic offers these free assessments to empower people to make more educated decisions on their healthcare journey, through understanding the medications they are taking and how they work."

The stall also hosted several games, including guessing the number of tablets in a jar and matching medications to certain conditions.

The Pharmacy Clinic team made sure the stall was interactive, fun, and educational, leaving locals with a lasting memory of who they are and what they can do to help them.

-Kōreroby Kelsey Swart, Division of Health Sciences Communications Adviser.