The Taiwanese Young Pharmacists Group (TYPG) was in Singapore for a visit from 16th to 20th January 2015. On 16th January 2015, eight friendly young pharmacists from the TYPG Executive Council arrived here, and were warmly welcomed by our members from YPC. This study trip aimed to facilitate in planning and execution of future exchange for their members as part of a bilateral exchange programme.
For YPC, the objective of this study trip was to showcase pharmacy practice in Singapore. Our planned programme for our visitors included a session that featured hospital pharmacy, community pharmacy, as well as the academics.
The study trip started off with an introduction and ice breaking session, conducted by Mr. Anson Lim at PSS on Saturday morning, 17th January. Mr. Anson Lim shared with them a general overview of Singapore’s healthcare system, and about pharmacy practice in the hospital and community settings in Singapore. This provided them with a better understanding of our healthcare system before their visits to the hospital and community pharmacies.
This was followed by a visit to Guardian, at the Sports Hub at Kallang Wave, and Watsons, at their flagship store at Ngee Ann City. Through the two sessions, they got to know more about the role of community pharmacists in Singapore. Special thanks to Ms. Melinda Chew from Guardian, and Mr. Anson Lim from Watsons for taking their time to share with our visitors on their experiences of being a community pharmacist!
Three members of TYPG visited the Department of Pharmacy of National University of Singapore. They were hosted by Associate Professor Chui Wai Keung, Head of the NUS Department of Pharmacy, for a tour of the department, as well as a sharing session on the pharmaceutical research environment in Singapore.
The other TYPG members have had a chance to visit the Singapore General Hospital, where they got to understand more about hospital pharmacy practice in Singapore. The visit included discussion sessions on hospital management, inpatient, outpatient and ambulatory care services, other specialty clinical pharmacist services, as well as professional training and development and research. In addition, there were facility visits to the TPN lab, Purchasing and Distribution Centre, the Retail, Inpatient and Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOC) pharmacies, and the Hematology Centre.
In all, the study trip served as a good platform for our Taiwanese counterparts and us to share experiences with one another. We hope to tap on ideas from one another and bring these ideas back to our respective home countries for the betterment of the profession. We also managed to foster closer ties with them. In the future, we hope to send our young pharmacists over to Taiwan for the exchange programme, and, in time to come, we hope to organise similar programmes with our other Asian countries.
Written by,
Mr. Ong Kheng Yong and Ms. Tien Li-Chen
