Pharmacists in Singapore are a versatile group of professionals working in a diverse field of practice. However, this versatility poses quite some challenge to balance the manpower needs by sectors.

Majority of pharmacists in Singapore can be found working in the following sectors (though the list is by no means comprehensive):

1. patient-care roles in hospital and community pharmacies;
2. sales and marketing portfolios in pharmaceutical firms;
3. quality, regulatory and safety functions at all stages of the drug’s life cycle;
4. drug trials and clinical research;
5. academic and biomedical research positions etc.

It’s hardly surprising that such versatility, and more significantly the apparent high demand for pharmacists, has made pharmacy course at the NUS one of the most sought after choices amongst the school leavers, thereby driving up entry requirements for the limited number of places available in the only university here offering the programme.

Having built in versatility in the pharmacy course allows actual job market dynamics to sort out its point of equilibrium. However, the current job market dynamics tends not to tilt the way of patient-care sector. This is evident from the protracted shortage of hospital pharmacists and the difficulties community pharmacy operators face in expanding their pharmacy outlets.

It’s easy to point out the obvious, but certainly ways and means of re-engineering the shift of equilibrium do exist and are partly or entirely at the disposal of various institutions training, employing, representing and regulating the pharmacists right from the training programme to job redesign.

Moving forward, as our health system is heading more towards right-siting of care, maximizing every trained healthcare worker to perform what they are best at. Pharmacists naturally have a lot more to contribute than what we are now doing, especially in the patient-care positions. With more stable chronic diseases being channeled to community and step-down care; a population that is greying rapidly; and generations of better educated consumers retiring into golden years with respectable spending power and are not averse to self-medication using western medicine -  pharmacists working in the community are practically presented with unprecedented opportunities to contribute his/her professional capabilities in health promotion, disease prevention and management at primary level..

In other words, without neglecting other important sectors of practice, I see greater priority and more to be done at the patient-care arenas. Only after we have addressed gaps in our very core area of expertise, then do other sectors matter in any real significance. A lot can be done with the present scenarios; a lot more must be done to position ourselves in the value-chain of the ever changing health system landscape in Singapore!

Ng Cheng Tiang, PSS President

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Add Comment