Speech by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Health, at the Singapore Pharmacy Council Pharmacist’s Pledge Affirmation Ceremony, at Academia, on 4 May 2018, 7pm

Mr Wu Tuck Seng, President, Singapore Pharmacy Council 

Distinguished Members of the Council 

Newly Registered Pharmacists 

Ladies and Gentlemen 

Good evening

Introduction 

1.      It gives me great pleasure to be here this evening to witness the affirmation of the Singapore Pharmacy Council’s Pledge. The ceremony marks a key milestone in your professional pharmacy career. The Pharmacist’s Pledge symbolises your commitment to uphold the values, ethics, vision and professionalism essential to the pharmacy profession. We hope that the oath you take today will drive you to achieve greater excellence in your own profession. 

Transforming Pharmacy Services for Effective Health Promotion 

2.      As Singapore continues our journey to transform the model of care to meet the challenges of an aging population, we need to invest more in prevention to defer the onset of diseases and disabilities so that Singaporeans can lead healthy lives and age gracefully. 

3.      As healthcare professionals, pharmacists have an active role to play in supporting care integration, advancing preventive care within communities and promoting safe and appropriate medication use. Pharmacists can serve as the trusted medication expert and educator not just for patients, but also for other healthcare professionals as well. 

4.      To support these shifts, the National Pharmacy Strategy outlines the approach to make pharmacy services more accessible, affordable and of good quality. We need to foster greater collaboration within and beyond the pharmacy community as we implement the strategy to transform the delivery of pharmaceutical care. 

Beyond Hospital to Community by Shifting from Acute Hospital Setting to Primary Care 

5.      The ageing population will bring about rising chronic diseases, and our healthcare needs will continue to increase in demand and complexity.  By strengthening the partnership between pharmacists across different care settings, we can provide a more holistic healthcare for Singaporeans.   

6.      One such scheme is a pilot study conducted at two Singapore Programmes for the Integrated Care for the Elderly (SPICE) Day Care Centres, these centres have clearly defined roles and benefits of pharmacists. Following the pilot, the National Pharmacy Programme Management Office is now working with the Agency for Integrated Care to extend pharmacy services to more centres in the community and to the Primary Care Network. There would about 200 clients in 7 sites, with at least 15 pharmacists involved. In the future, seniors can get help with their medications at community touchpoints such as Senior Care Centres, where community pharmacists will be stationed, thereby avoiding unnecessary trips to the doctor or hospital. 

7.      I am also happy to note that various collaborative services in the community pharmacies such as Smoking Cessation Counselling, Diabetes Risk Assessment service and the Diabetes Care Service Program have also been put in place to transform pharmacy care to a person-centric model. Programmes such as Start to S.T.O.P (Speak To Our Pharmacists) help to raise awareness and educate patients on better disease management. Other transformative strategies include streamlining of work processes by re-designing the supply chain via the centralisation of procurement, packaging and sterile compounding services to help innovate the delivery of medications to patients in the community. 

Staying relevant with training and continuous progress 

8.      The role of a pharmacist has evolved over the years and accordingly, we have also enhanced the training of our pharmacists to ensure relevance to the changing healthcare landscape. As part of the enhancements made to the National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate pharmacy programme in August 2014, all pharmacy students in their final year are required to undertake an individual research project and undergo two internships. This shortens the time needed for a graduate to start practising as a registered pharmacist by three months. The inaugural batch of undergraduates from this enhanced NUS pharmacy curriculum will be graduating in June 2018. 

9.      The Pharmacy Programme Review Committee commissioned by the Singapore Pharmacy Council has published the Standards for Undergraduate Pharmacy Education and Training in Singapore. This is a key milestone in improving standards for undergraduate pharmacy education and training, so that we will continue to have pharmacists of high calibre. 

10.    Beyond classroom learning, we also need excellent pharmacy preceptors to serve as good role models and mentors to deliver quality training to nurture a future-ready workforce. I am happy to note that the Singapore Pharmacy Council will be recognising deserving preceptors with the SPC Excellent Preceptor Award 2017 tonight. The Singapore Pharmacy Council has accredited two providers to conduct the Pharmacy Preceptor Training Programme from 2018 onwards, National Healthcare Group College and Singapore General Hospital. To date, a total of 1462 preceptors have attended the preceptor training workshops since 2004. 

Need for continuous professional development  

11.    In tandem with care and service transformation in the pharmacy sector, experienced and qualified pharmacists in the public healthcare sector can now prescribe medicines through collaborative prescribing system under the supervision of doctors. This will help to enhance patients’ access to quality care. It empowers our senior pharmacists, to collaborate inter-professionally and deliver better care for our patients. 

12.    We are supporting pharmacists’ development towards advanced level practice through the Advanced Practice Competency Framework. This framework serves as a broad-based developmental tool that articulates a pharmacist’s scope of practice and defines the knowledge, skills and attributes that are required in advanced practice. It will enable pharmacists to systematically identify areas for continuous professional development and to acquire new competencies to advance their practice. The guidebook on Competency Standards for Pharmacists in Advanced Practice was launched in August last year. Training workshops will be conducted to facilitate the adoption of this framework from this month onwards.  

13.    For pharmacists who intend to pursue pharmacy specialisations, there are structures in place to support broad and specialty-based National Pharmacy Residency programmes. In January this year, the fifth batch of pharmacy residents have commenced their training in the accredited national programmes. As of today, a total of 21 pharmacists have enrolled in these programmes and 13 of them have completed their training as at January 2018.

Conclusion 

14.    In closing, let me take this opportunity to congratulate our newly registered pharmacists. We look forward to your valued contributions to help bring the profession to even greater heights. I wish all of you a fulfilling and rewarding career ahead of you!

15.    Thank you.