NUSWhispers – Confession #95114

#pharmacy Seeing all the NUS pharmacy posts also makes me wanna confess something deep down. I apologize that it won't be pretty. I am a year 3-5 pharmacist previously also from NUS. I have to vouch all the posts so far are true and none are lies or sugar coated. Our own pharmacy council doesn't even fight for us. Our healthcare union sucks because it is not truly independent from the government. In other countries, the union and association are completely independent of the government and that is why there is change for the better for the workers. There is so much hidden yet visible resentment, hate, fear and regrets i can sense from my colleagues day in and day out. There is so much anger against many of the processes and work we have to do and not being paid enough for. There are so many sugar coated lies we are told. We need to value add, we have limited funds. We are told to be grateful we are even PAID for pre-reg. I don't see other first world countries pharmacist being as poorly paid as SG pharmacist. To all my fellow pharmacist, perhaps we need to create a supply shortage for our juniors and our future once and for all. Study something else in the meantime with SG skillsfuture or perhaps another field. We can mass quit in 2-4 years time to create a short squeeze so that salaries will rise. Remember, nurses pay was shit until there was a demand and shortage for it, and subsequently their pay rose a lot while ours remained extremely stagnant with barely 1% increment over the years. To the public who don't understand this internal anger, imagine working in a job, which supposedly is in demand right now (healthcare is in high demand, medication delivery demand has spiked to the moon trust me and you are getting it for FREE what?) and guess what? In covid 19 times we did so much. We cannot WFH, work OT, doing home delivery of medications with extremely long hours, getting shouted at by patients why their medications are not in, can't you not delivery this, why is it not free, etc and guess what? ALL the government did to appreciate you is a fixed amount which is akin to 0.5 month bonus for a starting pharmacist pay (not allowed to say how much, you can google it). What sorcery is this when Mr.Heng Swee Kiat actually mentioned on 28/2/2020 that "The Government will award public officers on the frontline who are directly battling the Covid-19 disease, up to one additional month of special bonus. Those battling the disease directly include healthcare officers in the Health Ministry and the hospitals, as well as other officers in frontline agencies who have been directly involved, he said"" What does this mean? It means sorry, even in your maximum high demand, you are just a half shit potato that needs to be grateful. Don't even get me started on our pathetic salary scale and raise. Compare this to other countries that actually raised permanently the salary of their healthcare workers. Compare this to essential services retailers like Sheng Siong who rewarded their staff the true value for working extra hard this year. To the juniors reading this, this battle is too big a battle. I believe many concerned seniors above me have tried and failed, thus at where i work, i see a huge age gap of the young and old. This battle is just perhaps not worth it to be fought the same way. [To the admin, please help to tag any official NUS pharmacy page etc. This would help us greatly]