Remarks by Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Health, for the Launch of Sandbox Initiative for Vaccination Services by Community Pharmacists

Good morning, everyone. First of all, I want to thank our three participating pharmacy chains – Unity, Guardian and Watsons – for participating in this small-scale sandbox.

2.            It is an important step forward. Why are we taking this step? Actually, in other countries, it is quite common that you take your jabs at pharmacies. During the COVID-19 years, in many of the Western countries, the main delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations was through the pharmacists.

3.            Historically, the different healthcare professions have developed differently in different countries. In our case, the centre of care has been revolving around the General Practitioners (GPs), and for good reasons as well. But today, we are focusing a lot more on preventive care, and this is in turn driven by a rapidly ageing population.

4.            If you look at influenza vaccination coverage, and I think the most vulnerable group is probably those 65 and above, the coverage now is about 40% for this group. That means that they are at higher risk of developing severe illness if they get influenza or any other kind of infection, and so being vaccinated makes a lot of sense for this group. 40% of them take it and that is not too high. It has been improving over the past few years and rising quite encouragingly, almost doubling, but we are still at 40%.

5.            Day to day, we still have many seniors coming to the Accident & Emergency Department, falling very sick, not because of any severe illness, but because they have an infection, including influenza infections. It can set them back for a very long time. Many do not recover, resulting in deaths. They may be admitted into the intensive care unit, and they may stay for a very long time in our hospitals.

6.            At the hospital end, we can feel the burden of an ageing population being infected and developing severe illnesses, all of which can be prevented if we just increase the influenza vaccination coverage. It will help a great deal. I think this is really a key motivation for this sandbox initiative. If there are more touchpoints in the community, including through our pharmacists, we can reach out to more seniors and really save lives.

7.            There is a secondary objective, which is to use this opportunity to get GPs and pharmacists to work more closely together as one system. Ultimately, no healthcare professional works in silos. It is always about community care. Especially when you shift healthcare away from the hospitals into the community, more and more need to work together. Not just GPs and pharmacists, but also nurses, social workers, active ageing centres, sport coaches and physiotherapists. They all come together for more holistic community care. At the same time, as we do this, we hope that over time, every healthcare professional including pharmacists, can practise at the apex of your licence.

8.            Because of these two motivations, we take this step forward to develop this sandbox. I am below 65, but nevertheless, I think it is a good example to set.