Given out every year, the Health Promotion Board’s awards aim to recognise and endorse exemplary efforts among participants of the Pharmacist Health Ambassador Programme.
Having touched the lives of over 30 people in her role as a pharmacist at NTUC Unity Healthcare Co-operative Limited, Ms Lam Cai Hong deserves to be under the limelight, not once but twice in a row.
Following a similar award in 2011, she was recently recognised by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) for promoting good health as part of the Pharmacist Health Ambassador Programme (PHAP) with the top ten participant award this year.
A collaborative project by HPB, the Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore and the community pharmacies, the PHAP serves to reach out to the masses and functions as a platform for pharmacists to share their knowledge to empower people to cope with chronic ailments and/or help them undergo healthy lifestyle modifications.
Ms Lam said: “The gist of the PHAP is very much what we do with all our patients every day – from listening to understand their health problems to finding the best appropriate treatment we can offer and counselling them the correct way to use their medications.
“From there, we need to make friends with the patients by spending more time to chat with them so that they are more willing to reveal their background and follow up with them through phone or future visits and document their progress. Mandatory recording of P-only medications helps get the contacts easier.”
Ms Lam also acknowledged that her employer, Unity, did its part to inspire her to do her best. The company simplified the recording process to ease her workload and devised incentive programmes to attract her to join PHAP.
