MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A Manchester-based pharmacist is optimistic that his book, launched last Wednesday, will be a game-changer for educating patients about taking their medications correctly.

Dane Thomas, author of Labels Explained and proprietor at Gateway Pharmacy on Caledonia Road in Mandeville, told his audience at the book launch that some patients misinterpret the dosage for medication.

“The book originated from a vision I had five years ago. I had this idea of doing some short skits on explaining labels because I noticed that a lot of patients, when they get their medication, they tend not to take it correctly. Most times they don’t take it correctly due to the fact of misunderstanding or lack of understanding of taking their medication,” he said.

“As a pharmacist, and the past week being Pharmacy Week, I want to portray pharmacists as persons who are also educators. Pharmacists, we are not just persons who give you medication or push drugs on you, but we are also here to educate every patient,” emphasised Thomas.

He explained that some patients who visited his pharmacy during Pharmacy Week benefited from sensitisation sessions.

“Educated patients will equate to better patients who are compliant — and that is what we want. This past week has been good. We had patient education sessions on Monday and we also had another session on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said.

Pharmacist Camille Grey-Campbell, who was among those in attendance at the book launch, lauded Thomas for writing the eight-page book.

“A lot of times patients are not compliant because of a lack of understanding and knowledge on how the medication is to be taken, so I think this book will help them to better understand in simpler terms how the medication is to be taken. This will lead to better compliance and patient outcome so this is a really great initiative,” she said.

Councillor Mario Mitchell (People’s National Party, Bellefield Division) while sharing similar sentiments, called for Government endorsement and support for the book.

“This book is very important as the pharmacist has said that many people are not taking their medications properly. For example, the minute that you feel better you stop taking the medication and not taking the right dosage, so this book is very good and I am excited for the prospects of it. I am even more excited that the book is free as a government official, and I would recommend that the National Health Fund take up something like this to have more books printed and distributed across the island to ensure that we have a healthy nation,” said Mitchell.

“The health-care system is overburdened. Dengue is on the rise, we just came out of COVID, so it is important for us to have this publication where we can educate the public of the best practices in terms of medication and dosage,” he added.

Thomas said the book is currently available at Gateway Pharmacy in Mandeville, however he intends to make it available in pharmacies islandwide by the end of January, free of cost.