58 59

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The Department of Pharmacy at the National University of Singapore, the only institution that produces pharmacy graduates, is steadily increasing its training capacity from the current 160 to eventually reach an annual intake of 240 pharmacy students. Besides increasing our local pipeline, foreign-trained pharmacists are supplementing our pool of pharmacists to meet pharmacist manpower demands. A total of 138 pharmacy degrees are recognised by the Singapore Pharmacy Council [5].

Capability building

As health care evolves, the pharmacy profession will have opportunities for new and expanded roles and responsibilities. The undergraduate pharmacy curriculum and the pre-registration training programme need to better integrate knowledge and skills training and facilitate smoother transition from university to practice.

Tomorrow s pharmacy workforce needs to develop with emerging practice trends (Table 5.7.1). Building capacity and capability of health care professionals are crucial means to ensure the accessibility and quality of health care delivery. Integrating care and ensuring seamless continuity is critical to produce desired health outcomes for patients as the health care focus shifts from hospital to the community. Pharmacists play significant roles to improve care and treatment for patients across the health care continuum, particularly in cost-effective drug therapy management and adding value to the health care team through reducing drug-related problems and preventable adverse drug events.

Table 5.7.1. Emerging practice trends in Singapore

5.7.3. Key strategic areas and proposed actions

The pharmacy profession in Singapore has been steadily progressing and keeping pace with the growth of Singapore s medical and health care sector. Pharmacy leadership in the country has identified the following key strategic areas to direct the pharmacy workforce towards the nation s Health care 2020 Master Plan (Table 5.7.2):

1- Manpower Management 2- Education and continuing professional development 3- Information, communication, and automation technology 4- Policies and regulation 5- Leadership

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Technology-driven, cost-effective management of drug distribution. Centralized and automated medication preparation and distribution in major hospitals. Health information technology interconnectivity and support.

Interdisciplinary and team-based health care delivery, education, and training. Majority of pharmacists time is spent providing direct patient care in many practice settings, in high risk and therapeutically complex patients requiring specialist knowledge and skill.

Allocation of health care resources driven by metrics and outcomes. Health care 2020 Master Plan focuses on three strategic objectives: enhancing the accessibility, quality, and affordability of care. Benchmarking systems incorporate measurements of treatment outcomes, medication safety, and total cost of care.

Expanding job roles of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists to keep up with changes such as new regulatory frameworks and product groups.

1

2

3

4

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Table 5.7.2. The key strategies and proposed actions

Strategic Areas Proposed Key Actions

- Lead and collaborate with organisations in succession planning to achieve a unified philosophy of pharmacy practice

- Lead and collaborate with professional organisations and academia to create a national programme for leadership development

and training in pharmacy

1. Manpower Management

Coordinated approach to ensure the pharmacy workforce meets future health care system and Singaporeans needs

2. Education and continu.ing professional development (CPD)

Collaborative approach to ensure high quality education and CPD programmes to support patient centred, outcomes-focused care.

3. Information, communication and automation technology (ICAT)

Create a profession�wide strategy for development and use of technology to facilitate delivery of safe and effective use of medication to patients.

4. Policies and Regulation

Change supported by regulatory authorities, committed to review and amend policies, regulation or legislation to address and encourage necessary initiatives, such as interdisciplinary team� based care.

5. Leadership Coordinated strategy to capitalize on collective strengths of professional organisations and academia to focus on the profession s effort towards a unified philosophy of pharmacy practice.

- Achieve consensus on enhanced skills and knowledge for pharmacists within key pharmacy practice sectors.

- Promote greater understanding of factors determining pharmacist and pharmacy support workforce workplace satisfaction.

- Address manpower numbers, recruitment, and retention i sues.

- Encourage pharmacists to pursue positions of leadership in government, educational institutions, and stakeholder organizations.

- Lead and collaborate in research initiatives to evaluate the effect of pharmacy practice on patient health, population health, and health

care services and the effect of changes in the utilization of pharmacy human resources.

- Promote the availability of appropriate numbers of pharmacy support workforce with better qualifications, expanded responsibilities,

and accountability as pharmacists roles evolve.

- Collaborate with the University to ensure that core pharmacy curricula address the knowledge, skills, and values required for future

pharmacy practice

- Lead and collaborate with key stakeholders to implement accessible programmes to upgrade competencies to support the

implementation of new services, specialty practices, and new practice models

- Create partnerships to develop learning programmes, including promotion and increase in inter�professional and intr professional

education and training

- Conduct and utilize research to develop, evaluate, and improve education and CPD programmes

- Address policies and practice issues relevant to electronic transfer of prescriptions and automation technology

- Promote adequate funding for implementation and maintenance of ICAT in pharmacy

- Ensure that the development and implementation of ICAT in various settings facilitates continuity of care and improves the delivery

of safe and effective use of medication to patients

- Lead and collaborate in research to evaluate how the use of ICAT by pharmacy affects health care services and outcomes

- Protect the public through ongoing reconciliation of professional practice, professional competencies, and competency performance

assessment, in parallel with broadening scopes of practice

- Enabling regulatory framework, authorizing pharmacists to deliver expanded services in new practice models, including but not limited

to: initiating, modifying, continuing, and monitoring drug therapy; ordering and accessing laboratory results; and administering drugs

and vaccines by injection, in both collaborative and independent practice models

- Develop a regulatory framework that grants more authority, responsibility and accountability to pharmacists and pharmacy support workforce.