SINGAPORE - When pharmacies turned to online channels to deliver medicine during the pandemic, pharmacist Vernadine Goh knew the switch would be challenging for her elderly patients.

"Many of them are not familiar with technology and don't have someone at home to help them (order their medicine online). So we take on the role of educators to help them navigate the digital space," said Ms Goh, 26, whose duties at Guardian included helping hospitals to facilitate the delivery of medicine to patients. She is no longer with Guardian.

On Friday (July 2), Health Minister Ong Ye Kung paid tribute to pharmacists like Ms Goh who stepped up to shoulder more public health responsibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He was speaking at the launch of the 20th Asian Conference on Clinical Pharmacy, a four-day conference which started on Thursday. More than 800 delegates will be discussing - on virtual platforms - how the pharmaceutical landscape has changed during the pandemic and how it will continue to evolve.

In his speech, Mr Ong lauded pharmacists for ramping up medication delivery services to cope with the virus outbreak. This ensured that patients whose medical appointments were pushed back due to the Covid-19 situation continued to have access to their medicine.

Mr Ong also recognised pharmacists for evaluating Covid-19 vaccines for use here and reviewing the latest medications for treating the virus.

"Given the rapidly changing evidence and many novel treatments, it was imperative that these medications were quickly made available in Singapore, and monitored closely for their safety and efficacy," he said.

Remdesivir, which was initially developed for the treatment of the Ebola virus, is one such drug that has been approved by the Health Sciences Authority to treat adult Covid-19 patients with severe respiratory conditions.

The Health Minister also noted that pharmacists helped to develop pre-packed medications with multilingual labels for patients at foreign worker dormitories and community care facilities.

Looking ahead, Mr Ong said that pharmacists will "move closer to the community", such as going to senior care centres to help the elderly manage their medications.

There will also be more collaboration between various healthcare providers to provide more holistic care, he added.