NPA member Altaf Vaiya has given a talk to over 300 people from the South Asian community to raise awareness of the importance of Vitamin D.
Altaf Vaiya, a pharmacist from Leicester who is one of the NPA’s champions in the We Care initiative said:
“South Asians, especially elderly people, are more susceptible to Vitamin D deficiency so it was a great opportunity to raise awareness and to also get people thinking of how their pharmacy can help them to live a healthy life. It was also a chance to raise people’s awareness of the range of services available at their local pharmacy. People tend to think of a pharmacy as a place to pick up prescriptions – as pharmacists we have to do more to spread the word that there is more on offer.”
Over 1,000 pharmacists have viewed the National Pharmacy Association’s factsheet, ‘Preventing Vitamin D deficiency in at-risk groups’, produced with the assistance of the Department of Health.
Leyla Hannbeck, Head of Information Services at the National Pharmacy Association said:
“There have been recent reports in the media about Vitamin D deficiency which has no doubt prompted more people to visit their pharmacy for support and advice. It’s important that pharmacy teams are clued-up about how to prevent Vitamin D deficiency in at-risk groups. Our factsheet includes detailed information as well as highlighting safety advice which needs to be considered when advising on Vitamin D supplements, for example, the presence of peanut and soya oil in certain preparations, which are potential allergens.”
