Another year is drawing to a close. Looking back, it’s amazing how much has taken place during the past 12 months. At Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore, 2006 has been a very eventful year.

PSS Secretariat Office
At the turn of 2006, the well-used, aged PSS secretariat office was given a deserving facelift. The renovated office now has 3 meeting rooms with capacities for 18, 6 and 4 respectively to cater for the numerous meetings and discussion sessions by our Council and various chapter/committees members. The staff’s workstations are now moved to the eastern-facing part of the building to abate the simmer of the setting sun, and perhaps improve the “fengshui” somewhat!

The New Council
In March 2006, the AGM was held and the current Council was elected to the office. Dr. Camilla Wong, having spent 3 illustrious years as President and seen through the milestone of centennial year, handed the helm of the much invigorated and energized  PSS to me and the 100th Council.

The efforts to forge closer communications and bonding with our members have been relentless. We put in extra-ordinary efforts to remake our website, transforming it to a portal that fills our members’ appetite with daily newsfeeds, periodic updates, ad-hoc information and monthly e-Bulletins. We conceive some idea to further enhance the web contents, but the challenge is to get passionate and IT-bravo members to realize it. Any interested parties, please kindly contact webmaster@pss.org.sg.

Calendar of PSS
We now hold Singapore Pharmacy Congress regularly with the past 2 events being held jointly with NUS Pharmacy Department. We are constantly improving the contents and the subject mix in order to enhance the relevance to our members and pharmacists (local and overseas) from different sectors of practice. Besides the serious business of scientific and technical meetings, equally important are the social and humanistic elements of the gathering where we come together to interact, socialize, strengthen our sense of camaraderie, and recognize our fellow colleagues’ achievements.

Pharmacy Week has also been organized regularly since the past few years to feature pharmacists' roles in healthcare system and to reach out to the public with a dose of healthy advice. We have been keeping ourselves very attuned with health issues that concern the public through such interaction. This will help us formulate and design our working approach insofar as the healthcare needs, lifestyle issues, drugs/supplements usage trend, disease management and prevention for the public are concerned.

Increasingly, we have been working closely with other stakeholders on specific healthcare agendas and programmes, most notable partners are the various hospitals, pharmacies, Health Promotion Board, Central CDC and other NGOs. Our focus has always revolved around patients and drugs, so that Singapore public will become more aware of drug-related issues, healthier and hopefully better understand the contribution of pharmacists towards their well-being.

External Liaison and Networking
2006 has been a fruitful year. Within Singapore, we have expanded our interaction with various professional organizations, industrial groupings, educational institutions etc. Externally, we have participated and were invited to more overseas conferences, and getting to know a lot more fellow pharmacists and experts.

Traditionally, President of PSS has always attended the FIP Conference. This year’s FIP Conference was held in Brazil and I decided to buck the tradition for 2 reasons :–

i)  it’s too costly to travel to Brazil; and
ii) it’s too impractical an effort to network whilst the same can be achieved at our neighbouring countries at a fraction of the cost.

As a result, the expenses saved were used to finance a larger contingent of PSS delegates to attend the recently concluded FAPA Congress in Japan. 5 Council members were able to attend this largest pharmacy event in Asia. PSS will be the host of the next FAPA Congress and it makes a lot of sense to have bigger presence in Japan. The efforts have been very rewarding and we have more reports on 21st FAPA Congress in this and coming issues of e-Bulletins.

Moving Forward in 2007 and Beyond…
2007 will bring with it different events and issues. I trust that PSS, with the full support and selfless contribution of our members, has and will continue to consolidate our position to prepare the profession and ourselves individually to face the many new challenges and changes ahead.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members, my Council, the various chapters/committees, our partners, stakeholders, friends and our secretariat for making PSS what it is and how it should be. Here’s wishing everyone a Happy and Healthier New Year 2007.

Ng Cheng Tiang
President, PSS.