SURVEY ON MEDICAL SAFETY CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHARMACISTS IN PREVENTING POTENTIAL ADVERSE OUTCOMES FOR PATIENTS

NOTICE PAPER NO. 3001 

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 9 SEPTEMBER 2024

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Dr Tan Wu Meng

MP for Jurong GRC 

Question No. 6038

To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether a survey will be conducted to study the medical safety contributions of pharmacists, including how pharmacist interventions have prevented potential adverse outcomes for patients; and (b) what is the estimated cost of these averted adverse outcomes would have been, including the averted potential economic adversity and human suffering.

Answer

1      Pharmacists play a pivotal role in safeguarding medication safety for patients. Pharmacists participate in medication reconciliation, both in the inpatient and outpatient settings, to ensure that patients’ medications are correct and safe. This helps to reduce the risk of patients taking their medications inappropriately. Not all the benefits from pharmacists’ interventions are quantifiable. Local studies have demonstrated that pharmacist-led medication therapy management service in the outpatient setting decreased unplanned hospital admissions and emergency department visits. Pharmacists helped to optimise patients’ medications and worked with the healthcare team to resolve medication issues, which would have otherwise increased patients’ risk of adverse outcomes, such as falls, heart attack and stroke. 

2      Pharmacists work in multi-disciplinary care teams to help patients achieve good chronic disease control and avoid potential complications. A 2017 study showed that regular follow-ups by pharmacists in a collaborative care model with physicians, nurses and dieticians improved blood sugar control for patients with poorly managed type 2 diabetes. Pharmacists worked with patients to address common misunderstandings about their medications to improve adherence to the treatment, and empowered patients to manage their own conditions. 

3       In the intensive care unit (ICU) setting, a 2023 study showed that timely interventions made by critical care pharmacists to correct inappropriate drug regimens and discontinue unnecessary medications helped to reduce the ICU length of stay and the overall healthcare expenditure borne by patients and the system.