Pharmacy Manager

ANG MO KIO - THYE HUA KWAN HOSPITAL LTD.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

ANG MO KIO - THYE HUA KWAN HOSPITAL LTD. is seeking a Pharmacy Manager to lead inpatient and retail pharmacy services.

You will oversee clinical, operational and commercial aspects, ensure safe and compliant provision of health products, and drive service development within a cost-efficient hospital setting. You will provide leadership to Pharmacists, Technicians and Retail staff, ensuring high standards of practice, patient safety and quality improvement while growing the hospital’s pharmacy

Qualifications

• Leads a team of Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacy Assistants and Retail staff with performance expectations.
• Ensures compliance with Healthcare Services Act and licensing requirements.
• Provides professional pharmacy services including medication reconciliation and counselling.
• Drives quality improvement and system-wide standard setting.
• Oversees pharmacy practice, formulary management and pharmacotherapy leadership.
• Manages the hospital retail P&L, pricing, merchandising and partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Leads, motivates and holds accountable a multidisciplinary pharmacy team for patient safety and operational efficiency.
• Ensures compliance and readiness for MOH/HSA inspections, licensing renewals and audits.
• Delivers professional services such as medication reconciliation, reviews and patient education.
• Identifies drug-related problems and formulates care plans for patients.
• Leads medication safety quality assurance and investigates incidents to implement corrective actions.
• Develops and grows retail pharmacy offerings, including new revenue-generating services.
• Manages budget, inventory and stockpile to minimise wastage and ensure supply.

Skills

Leadership

Regulatory compliance

Pharmacy operations

Medication safety

Retail business development

Budgeting

Inventory management

Policy development

Job description

Job Purpose

The Pharmacy Manager reports to the Director, Medical Services and leads the hospital's inpatient and retail pharmacy services. He/She is accountable for the safe, compliant and cost-effective provision of health products and professional pharmacy services, for ensuring that pharmacy operations as a whole are financially viable, and for the financial performance and growth of the retail pharmacy. He/She will work closely with the multidisciplinary healthcare team to provide a seamless delivery of care which is of high quality, safe and cost-efficient for patients. He/She will provide clinical, operational and commercial leadership to the team of Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacy Assistants and Retail staff, raise standards of practice and accountability within the team, and drive quality improvement, new service development and business growth.

Responsibility

1. Leadership and People Development

• Leads, motivates and holds accountable a team of Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacy Assistants and Retail staff; sets clear performance expectations aligned to hospital objectives, and ensures targets for patient safety and operational efficiency are met.
• Drives a culture of ownership, continuous improvement and service excellence; leads change and manages underperformance constructively and in a timely manner.
• Delegates, reviews and oversees the work of subordinates, including regular feedback and appraisal.
• Develops talent and succession within the team and ensures staff training is in line with strategic objectives.
• Contributes actively to staff training for pharmacy and other in-house departments (e.g. medication-related training for nursing and allied health staff).

2. Regulatory Compliance and Governance

• Accountable for the pharmacy's compliance with the Healthcare Services Act (HCSA) and other applicable legislation (including the Health Products Act, Medicines Act, Poisons Act and Misuse of Drugs Act), and with HSA licensing requirements including the retail pharmacy license.
• Maintains inspection readiness at all times; leads preparation for MOH/HSA inspections, licensing renewals and external audits, and ensures timely close-out of findings.
• Ensures compliant prescription, receipt, sale, supply, storage (including cold chain), controlled drug management, distribution and disposal of health products.
• Plans and performs internal audits to specification and tracks corrective actions to completion.

3. Pharmacy Practice and Professional Standards

• Ensures delivery of, and personally performs as necessary, professional services, e.g. medication reconciliation, medication review, counselling, patient education and drug information enquiries.
• Identifies, assesses and resolves drug-related problems, and formulates pharmaceutical care plans for patients.
• Establishes a competency framework, with periodic competency assessment of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians.
• Manages the hospital formulary, evaluates new drug requests and conducts drug utilisation reviews.
• Collaborates with other healthcare providers as the key opinion leader on pharmacotherapy in the multidisciplinary team.

4. Medication Safety and Quality Improvement

• Leads the Medication Safety Quality Assurance Committee to review medication errors and near-misses, and drive system-level improvement and innovation.
• Investigates root causes of patient/customer complaints and medication incidents and implements and verifies corrective action.
• Leads quality improvement projects to ensure pharmacy operations run at optimal efficiency with minimal wastage, working towards zero wastage.

5. Retail Pharmacy and Business Development

• Owns the retail pharmacy P&L and achieves agreed revenue and margin targets.
• Develops the retail offering, including product range, pricing, merchandising and customer experience.
• Liaises and negotiates with suppliers and vendors on terms, promotions and partnerships to optimise sales.
• Identifies and develops new revenue-generating services (e.g. multi-dose medication packing for THK Group facilities and external partners), prepares business cases and tracks their performance.

6. Budget and Inventory

• Participates in the yearly budgetary exercise and manages the Pharmacy's budget.
• Ensures all related costs and revenue are accounted for and accurately recovered, and all discrepancies are investigated.
• Manages inventory, stockholding and any required stockpile (e.g. contingency stock) to ensure supply while minimising expiry and wastage.

7. Policy and Systems

• Reviews and develops pharmacy policies, procedures, standards, guidelines, protocols and governance frameworks, using techniques such as (but not limited to) systems approach, horizon scanning and risk management.
• Optimises pharmacy workflows and medication-use processes within EPIC.
• Leads the development of new operations or clinical initiatives, including those tha