Revision to List of Overseas Pharmacy Qualification for Registration

           To meet Singaporeans’ changing healthcare needs and continually enhance professional standards, the list of registrable overseas pharmacy qualifications under the Pharmacists Registration Regulations is reviewed periodically. Arising from its latest review, the Singapore Pharmacy Council (SPC) has proposed revisions to the list. The Ministry of Health (MOH) has accepted SPC’s recommendation, and the new list of overseas pharmacy qualifications for registration will take effect from 1 August 2020.

2.         61 overseas pharmacy schools will be on the revised list of overseas schools offering registrable pharmacy qualifications, compared to 135 schools on the existing list. Please refer to the Annex for the revised list, and SPC’s website at www.spc.gov.sg for the registrable pharmacy qualifications from these schools.

3.         Singapore Citizens, Singapore Permanent Residents and foreign students who have already secured a place as a candidate, or who have enrolled and are studying in the affected schools before 1 August 2020, from an overseas school offering a qualification that is no longer on the list, will not be affected by the change. They will continue to be considered for conditional registration with SPC if they fulfil the other prevailing requirements, such as being registered as a pharmacist in the country of study and currently holding a valid license to practise in that country.

4.          From 2014 to 2018, only 37 SPC-registered pharmacists were from schools that will no longer be on the revised list, and there have been no graduates registered in Singapore from 65 of the affected schools.

5.         MOH has been growing our local healthcare training pipelines and building a strong local core to meet growing healthcare needs. The number of pharmacists in Singapore has grown significantly by about 60% from around 2,000 in 2011 to about 3,200 in 2018. As such, the need to recruit overseas-trained pharmacists will moderate and stabilise in the coming years.

6.         SPC’s review of the list of registrable pharmacy qualifications has taken into consideration various factors. These include international and national rankings of the schools offering these qualifications as well as the work performance of registered pharmacists from these schools.

7.           SPC will continue to conduct periodic reviews of the list of registrable qualifications regularly based on the evolving needs of Singapore’s healthcare system while upholding high standards of practice by pharmacists in Singapore.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH and SINGAPORE PHARMACY COUNCIL
18 JULY 2019