The Straits Times, Oct 10, 2007 by Lee Hui Chieh

Pharmacists in great demand with wider job scope and growth of health-care sector

GRADUATE with a pharmacy degree today, and there will be 40 jobs waiting for you, in public hospitals alone.

Public health groups National Healthcare Group (NHG) and SingHealth, and pharmacies such as Guardian Beauty and Health, say that up to one in four places remain unfilled. These three organisations are currently short of 69 pharmacists altogether.

The National University of Singapore, which offers the only pharmacy degree course locally, cannot churn them out fast enough.

Next year, it will take in 140 students, instead of the current 115.

Recent changes to the Pharmacists Registration Act, passed last month, will make it easier to recruit more foreign-trained pharmacists.One of the changes allows for conditional registration for pharmacists, which widens the pool of professionals for hire, said Guardian's pharmacy practice director, Mrs Choo Wai Lin.

Previously, foreign-trained pharmacy graduates had to be registered in the countries where they got their degrees before they could practise their profession here.

The amended Act now allows those who are not registered where they were trained, to register and practise here first, on condition that they complete a training stint under supervision and pass an examination later on.

Up to one-fifth of the close to 400 pharmacists from NHG, SingHealth and Guardian are foreign-trained.

The shortage of pharmacists is a result of expansion in their duties, and the growth in both the health-care and biomedical sciences sectors.

The Health Ministry predicts Singapore will need 200 more pharmacists every year, not just in practice, but also in research and training.

Singapore has 1,482 registered pharmacists. Almost half practise in hospital and community pharmacies. The rest work in drug companies, regulatory bodies such as the Health Ministry and research institutions.

At least 100 have postgraduate qualifications and may be potentially listed on a specialist register that will be set up under the amended Act.

To shore up numbers, hospitals and pharmacies hire technicians, who take the simpler tasks off the pharmacists, including taking inventory and packing drugs.

Raffles Medical Group said it is not facing a crunch thanks to 80 pharmacy technicians, assistants and dispensers helping its four pharmacists.

Flexible hours or part-time work, as well as the use of IT, has also helped to streamline jobs and retain workers.

At the same time, pharmacists' job scopes are widening.

They are being increasingly involved in patient care, said NHG Pharmacy's general manager, Ms Chan Soo Chung.

For example, those in the group's hospitals now go on ward rounds with doctors to review the types and dosages of drugs prescribed.

At retail pharmacies like Guardian, they also offer patient care services such as chronic disease counselling, smoking cessation and weight management.

Read more about the different types of pharmacists and how they help save lives in Mind Your Body  today.

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