On the Saturday 15 Jul 2023, PanCare Medical Clinic and iRx Clinical Pharmacy got busy running a health screening event at Hougang, in collaboration with Aljunied Hougang Town Council. The objective was to introduce Healthier Sg to the residents and to also answer their burning questions.
Most of the participants at this event were in their 60s or older and many were struggling with various challenges wrt health care. Some were not able to understand the disease states well, some were non adherent to their therapies and/or their monitoring. These are issues which are relatively easy to manage because by speaking to a doctor or the pharmacist, the individual gain skills that are easily applicable. However, the hardest things to manage are those that stem from social issues.
For instance, I encountered an elderly grandma in her 80s who lives alone and falls frequently. When I asked if she has children, she started tearing up and said she's been abandoned. Thankfully she is still able to cope with her activities of daily living (ADL) and follows up at polyclinic regularly. However, it is unclear how her living conditions are like, whether she has difficulty manoeuvring in her house which resulted in her fall? She does not have a walking aid and uses only an umbrella as one on rainy days. I advised her to get one, but to be honest, I’m not sure if she is able to do that.
We also received a pair of mother and daughter who arrived after we closed our registration. The daughter (in her 30s) was having high fever. She came down with two big bags of medications and asked if she can take any of those. After looking through the medications, we found that only one pack of paracetamol is dated well within its expiry date. (And thankfully it’s paracetamol.) The rest of them have long past their expiry dates and many of them have discoloured. One has even expired more than 10 years ago! During our interaction with them, they bickered very intensely. The mother refused to discard the unopened but expired lozenges. And that opened up the pandora box of unhappiness through the years.
As a healthcare professional, oftentimes we have been equipped with scientific evidence and guidelines to manage diseases. However, the difficulty is in the execution as we are limited by the lack of social support at home. For instance, we advise patients to measure their blood pressure at home, but about 30-40% of them do not have a BP monitor at home and are unable to afford one.
Going on these health screenings has given me an opportunity to see a different type of patient profile, and deal with a different set of difficulties. When I was working in the hospital, the social issues didn’t hit me so hard because I don’t interact with patients at the level I do in primary care. This journey in primary care is a very humbling experience.
I thank the organizers and collaborators for this opportunity and I encourage other pharmacists to join me in doing what we can for the community.
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