Courtesy Visit by Japanese Retail …

Courtesy Visit by Japanese Retail Pharmacy Group

On 08-Dec-2009, a group of about 25 community pharmacists from Japan visited Singapore & had an opportunity to meet up with PSS representatives to exchange some thoughts & experience.

The Japanese team was part of the senior pharmacists from the Sogo Medical Co Ltd, a joint venture company with the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. Sogo Medical currently runs 258 pharmacies which is nearly as many as all the pharmacies in Singapore combined!

The group hires more than 1,000 pharmacists & filled more than 5 million prescriptions in the past 3 years or so. It is interesting to learn about the Japanese healthcare & specifically retail pharmacy system. Amongst some of the interesting insights include:

˙The code of ethics for Japanese pharmacists;

˙The cap on the workload (number of Rx each pharmacist can dispense per workday)

˙The universal healthcare system & quantum of insurance reimbursement with age limit;

˙Exact dispensing by quantity of supply per Rx etc.

For the full presentation of the Sogo Medical group (in English, of course), please login to access Member Only Area and look under Community Chapter (in the black bar under PSS logo) to read the full presentation of the Sogo Medical

PSS was represented by Past-President (Ng Cheng Tiang); Retail Chapter Chairman (Ivan Chew) & Past-Council Member (Koh Oon Sim). This meeting came about through the personal contact of Cheng Tiang who met up with another major group of Japanese pharmacists from NPhA who paid similar courtesy visit to PSS some 3 years ago as reported in Issue 18 of the eBulletin.

Source:http://www.pss.org.sg/