Watsons offers free allergy consultations around S’pore

SINGAPORE — Amid an increasingly tough retail environment, healthcare and beauty group Watsons yesterday announced the launch of its Allergy Care Services, offering free pharmacist consultation with up to three follow-up visits at 38 of its reformatted stores here.

It has also teamed up with Fullerton Healthcare, which has a chain of 130 clinics, for the referral of more complicated cases. The care services for those suffering from allergic conditions are currently not available at any community pharmacies in Singapore, said Watsons, adding that the move is in response to the rising worldwide trend of allergy cases, as well as its own study of healthcare statistics here.

“This is the first of Watsons’ new initiatives to set new standards in pharmacy healthcare,” said Mr Dominic Wong, chief operating officer of Watsons Singapore. The chain has reformatted 38 of its 106 stores in the Republic to offer Allergy Care Services, of which 15 have specially designed Allergy Relief Bays for customers to gain quick access to allergy consultation and medication.

Watsons’ move will help set it apart from rivals in the competitive retail landscape, where brick-and-mortar stores are coming under a triple whammy of high rentals, rising wages resulting from the labour shortage, and the onslaught from online retailers.

Allergic rhinitis is a common condition where the nose becomes inflamed as the immune system overreacts to particles in the air. Steroid nasal sprays, or intranasal corticosteroid sprays, used as the first line of relief from allergic rhinitis, do not require a doctor’s prescription. Customers will be assessed using a structured questionnaire, to determine the severity and frequency of their allergic rhinitis symptoms, said Watsons. The three free follow-up consultations provided by Watsons’ pharmacists include individualised advice about medication use, as well as healthcare tips.

In a study last month, Watsons surveyed 4,900 people in Singapore and found 42 per cent suffer from allergies at least once a month. About 77 per cent cited skin allergies as their top concern, followed by nose (at 35 per cent) and eye (16 per cent). About 43 per cent do not seek any treatment for their symptoms, found the study.

In a separate study jointly conducted by Watsons and the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Pharmacy from September to December 2014, only 45 per cent of individuals with symptoms indicative of moderate-severe allergic rhinitis who frequent community pharmacies were found to be using intranasal corticosteroid sprays. Among the study respondents who remembered being instructed to use such sprays on a daily basis, 95 per cent reported being non-adherent to the instructions.

As frontline healthcare professionals, community pharmacists are well-positioned to help patients select the appropriate medicines and provide counselling to ensure the safety and compliance of medicine use, said Dr Yap Kai Zhen, lecturer at the NUS Department of Pharmacy.