Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, at the 1st Pharmaceutical Sciences Forum, 2 August 2017

Associate Professor Lita Chew, Chief Pharmacist,
Ms Jeanne Liew, Principal and CEO, Nanyang Polytechnic,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

1.            A very good afternoon. It is my pleasure to join you here today at the 1st Pharmaceutical Sciences Forum.

2.            This inaugural forum is testament to the steady growth of the field of pharmaceutical sciences. I am pleased to see the wide spectrum of career and development options available in pharmaceutical sciences through the variety of talks and career booths that will be presented today. In this light, it is apt that we recognise the first batch of students of the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme for the Advanced Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sciences Programme.

A pharmacy workforce for the future

3.            Singapore is facing a rapidly-ageing population with an increased chronic disease burden. As a result, the demand for healthcare is set to grow exponentially. We have continued to grow the healthcare workforce to meet these future healthcare needs. We have also embarked on a concerted effort to transform our healthcare system – firstly, we are going beyond delivering healthcare to promoting health; secondly, beyond hospital to care in the community; and thirdly, beyond providing good quality to ensuring value healthcare.

4.            This growth in demand for healthcare will create more jobs for Singaporeans in this sector. But it also means that our workforce will have to be prepared for a changing healthcare industry – one that leverages automation and technology where electronic data becomes the norm; and one where the delivery of care, health and wellness will be at the community level as part of a multi-disciplinary care team.

5.            ln line with the transformation of healthcare, the pharmacy workforce will also need to transform itself to support these changes. In the future healthcare model, the pharmacy workforce will provide more specialised pharmaceutical care to acute patients with complex diseases or high-risk drugs requiring close monitoring. It will also look into extending its medication management services to patients with chronic diseases at home or in the community. This will require different levels of the pharmacy workforce to be more highly skilled, and open to the use of technology for safer and more efficient care.

6.            For example, the Outpatient Pharmacy Automated System (OPAS) currently implemented in several public hospitals and polyclinics use robotics to automate the prescription filling process and improves manual picking accuracy for drugs. By automating 80% of the medication dispensing workflow, OPAS has substantially streamlined processes, and decreased prescription rework rates by two-thirds. Such innovative systems have greatly reduced the manual work traditionally performed by pharmacy technicians, and freeing their capacity to better support the pharmacists in a wider range of more challenging operational and patient care related pharmacy services.  

Development for Pharmacy Technicians

7.            Working under the supervision of registered pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians form the key support workforce for pharmacies in our public hospitals and institutions. To facilitate career advancement and maximise the potential of our pharmacy technician workforce, the Ministry of Health has also launched the revised career and development framework for Pharmacy Technicians in 2014. This revised framework introduced three additional executive job levels and identified four areas of role expansion, namely in Distribution, Technical, Quality Assurance and Patient Care Services. Our pharmacy technicians will be able to take on higher level tasks as they progress in their career, through targeted skills upgrading to attain the competencies required for the various areas of role expansion.

8.            In continuation of these efforts, I am pleased to launch the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme for Pharmacy Technicians today, with a pioneer batch of 24 participants from our public healthcare institutions. This 18-months structured work-learn programme, which leads to an Advanced Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sciences, has been developed in collaboration with Nanyang Polytechnic to upskill our Pharmacy Technicians along the intended development direction.

9.            The theory and on-the-job training provided by the programme will deepen core competencies so that Pharmacy Technicians will be equipped to take on bigger roles. For instance, they can contribute in areas of quality assurance and medication safety by optimising the pharmacy automation system, where they form part of the healthcare team to come up with ways to reduce medication errors. They can also acquire advanced skills in areas such as sterile compounding to safely prepare total parenteral nutritions or oncology drugs, and in investigational drug inventory management to support research. They will also be able to perform basic medication reconciliation and counsel patients on medication use, and offer health and wellness advice such as smoking cessation to complement drug therapy for chronic disease management.

Spirit of lifelong learning

10.         Lifelong learning is critical to the transformation of the pharmacy workforce. Whether through self-learning or structured programmes, continuing education helps one obtain updated knowledge and skills required for their professional practice, as jobs and roles across various sectors evolve rapidly.

11.         A job in the growing healthcare sector is no doubt challenging but gratifying, and it is an exciting time to be part of the pharmacy workforce. I would like to applaud the ELP participants for choosing to pursue this opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and skills. I also encourage all students here today to keep up your passion, and continually seek opportunities for learning and development.

12.         I wish all of you the very best in your studies, and look forward to your future contributions in public healthcare. Thank you.