Speech by A/Prof Benjamin Ong, Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, at the 1st National Collaborative Prescribing Programme Graduation Ceremony, 2 July 2018

Professor Kenneth Kwek, Chairperson of Collaborative Prescribing Standing Committee 

Associate Professor Tham Kum Ying, Chairperson of Collaborative Prescribing Curriculum Committee 

Professor Emily Ang, Head of the NUS Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies 

Associate Professor Ho Han Kiat, Deputy Head, NUS Department of Pharmacy 

Distinguished Guests 

Ladies and Gentlemen

A very good morning to everyone. I am pleased to join you today at the inaugural National Collaborative Prescribing Programme Graduation Ceremony.

2.    Today is a very significant occasion and one that I have been waiting for. As the first batch of Collaborative Prescribing (CP) candidates graduate from the National Collaborative Prescribing programme hosted by the National University of Singapore. I understand the course has been rigorous and challenging, with volumes of weekly readings, clinical work, assessments and an OSCE. Despite these challenges and your busy schedules, you have risen to the occasion. Your graduation is a culmination of your hard work and perseverance, as well as the support of your colleagues and supervisors, and the lecturers and organisers of the Collaborative Prescribing course.

3.    I would like to personally thank the staff and faculty of the Department of Pharmacy and the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, as well as the Collaborative Prescribing Standing Committee’s Curriculum committee led by Associate Professor Tham Kum Ying. Together you have contributed to the successes of the graduates today.

Care Transformation

4.    The care needs of Singaporeans have changed rapidly in recent years due to our rising life expectancies and ageing population. Presently, Singapore has around 500,000 seniors aged 65 years and above. By 2030, we expect this number to almost double, to one in four Singaporeans. This demographic shift will put a strain on our healthcare resources and it is very clear to all of us that carrying on business-as-usual is not an option.

5.    Our healthcare system is in a journey of care transformation and integration. As you know, the Ministry and all of us have embarked on three key shifts to keep healthcare sustainable: we want to go Beyond Healthcare to Health, to support Singaporeans in leading a healthier lifestyle; we want to move Beyond Hospital to Community, to reach out appropriate care to Singaporeans in their community or at home and Beyond Quality to Value, to improve our healthcare system while ensuring sustainability and affordability.

6.    These shifts mean that healthcare professionals have to adjust the way we work, keep abreast of developments and constantly enhance our skillsets through training. The CP course is one example where our Senior Pharmacists and Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) upgrade their skills to enable a change in the way we work in delivering an effective and quality healthcare.

Benefits of Collaborative Prescribing

7.    Collaborative Prescribing potentially facilitates care transformation, in the community and hospitals, and should enable service innovation and better continuity of care through team-based care.

8.    Pharmacists and Nurses can contribute better when enabled in this way facilitating team based collaborative practise holistically around patients. This CP course offers Senior Pharmacists and Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs), like yourselves, an opportunity to perform more advanced roles and responsibilities as well as expands their scope of practice.

9.    Empowering trained professionals to prescribe medication and order tests in collaboration with doctors ultimately increases our patients’ accessibility to healthcare, and our productivity as well.

Collaborative Prescribing to Collaborative Practice

10.    However, this whole endeavour is really not about prescribing privileges. Let me now challenge you to take the knowledge and skills acquired through collaborative prescribing experiences, and implement it into collaborative practice.

11.    Over the years, our nursing colleagues have made great efforts to develop community nursing. Community nurses are familiar with the services provided for our patients in both acute settings in hospitals as well as in the community. They can therefore bridge patient care across multiple care settings, support patient discharges and address needs surfaced by the community.

12.    Similarly, as the number of Collaborative Prescribing Practitioners grow, we foresee a future where there are Collaborative Prescribing Practitioners across various settings. We envisage our Collaborative Prescribing Practitioners to be capable of supporting a range of value-added functions, with the knowledge and skills to perform more advanced roles in the community. Amongst others, we hope to continually increase accessibility to integrated care for our patients.

Closing

13.    In closing, let me take this opportunity to congratulate our pioneer batch of Collaborative Prescribing Practitioners. At the same time, it is timely to recall the key tenets in our professional pledges to “spare no effort to alleviate suffering and promote health and to refrain from any action which might endanger life”; whilst working to “impart knowledge, experience and skills to nurture future pharmacist and nurses”. This will be my encouragement to you: to practice in a safe and responsible manner, and to lay a strong foundation for the subsequent batches.

14.    We look forward to your contributions to our healthcare system, be it engaging in Collaborative Practice and utilising your new skills safely and responsibly, or to training and supporting new batches of Collaborative Prescribing candidates who can benefit from your experience and guidance. Pass the knowledge on, and help bring all our professions, collaboratively, to greater heights. 

Thank you very much and congratulations to all of you.