Kidney dialysis patients with end-stage renal disease are frequently on many types of medication to treat various health problems arising from kidney failure. They may consult three or more doctors at the hospital or dialysis centre, and their medication frequently gets changed.

This leads to a lot of confusion and medication wastage. To help them, pharmacists at the Renal Medication Management Service, Singapore General Hospital​ (SGH), a member of the SingHealth group, does the following:

• Before the patient’s appointment with a renal doctor, his medication is reviewed to ensure he has no surplus or expired drugs.
• Drug-related problems, such as adverse reactions or untreated symptoms, are identified.
• The pharmacist vwill also check if the patient is taking his medication as prescribed. The pharmacist’s findings and recommendations will be compiled in a report to be shared with the patient’s renal doctor.

The Renal Medication Management Service has helped:

• more than 100 dialysis patients since January 2012
• patients save between $50 and $256 by cutting down the incidence of surplus drugs
• reduce the potential incidence of patients’ hospitalisation by 14.7per cent
• cut down patients’ risk of a life-threatening event by 4 per cent

The Renal Medical Management Service received this year’s SingHealth Allied Health Innovative Practice Award. Launched in 2007, the award showcases efforts by allied health professionals to improve patient care and clinical outcomes. There were 12 submissions from SGH, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) this year.