Medication programme extended to more homes, home-care providers

A programme that gets pharmacists to help make sure nursing home residents take their medicines promptly and safely will be extended to more homes and home-care providers. It follows a successful one-year pilot at six nursing homes in the last year.

They are St Theresa's Home, Society for the Aged Sick, Tai Pei Social Service, Sree Narayana Mission Home for the Aged Sick, Jamiyah Nursing Home and Moral Home for the Aged Sick.

A spokesman for the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), an entity under the Ministry of Health that oversees the long-term care of the elderly, said it would start getting in touch with other nursing homes and hoped to extend the programme to all eventually.

For the pilot, pharmacists from Guardian Health & Beauty, Watson's Personal Care Stores, NTUC Unity Healthcare and the National Healthcare Group visited the six homes and met individual residents to sort out their medications.