Alami Clinic’s Vision and Alignment with National Goals
- By Imran Shah, Pharmacist and Co-Founder
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at National Day Rally 2025 - (image taken from The Straits Time)
Alami Clinic warmly welcomes the initiatives outlined in Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s National Day Rally 2025, which mirror the values we have upheld since our founding. As a clinic dedicated to geriatric care, our mission has always been to provide holistic, affordable, and accessible support for seniors. Many of the rally’s themes—preventive health, ageing-in-place, community-based services, and multidisciplinary care—are principles that guide our daily practice.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s National Day Rally 2025 delivered on 17 August 2025 set out a bold, compassionate vision for supporting Singapore’s ageing population. As a healthcare provider focused on older adults, Alami Clinic is heartened by the government’s plans and we fully embrace the rally’s call to improve senior care. Our vision has always been to “give you the care you deserve,” and the rally’s focus on preventive, community-based and age-in-place eldercare resonates deeply with our mission. Below, we outline key rally highlights and how Alami Clinic will respond to help turn these plans into reality.
Key National Day Rally 2025 Highlights on Senior Care
PM Wong acknowledged that Singapore is fast becoming a “super-aged” society and unveiled the new “Age Well Neighbourhoods” initiative – a comprehensive approach to help seniors age with dignity in their own communities. Several important measures were announced to strengthen support for seniors and healthcare nationwide:
Emphasis on Preventive Health: The PM stressed a shift in healthcare towards preventing illness and keeping healthy, not just treating sickness. He highlighted the Healthier SG program, urging all Singaporeans to have a regular family doctor and work on personalized health plans (diet, exercise, health screenings, etc.) for better long-term outcomes. Over 1.3 million residents have already signed up for Healthier SG, which encourages lifestyle changes and early detection to improve one’s health-span. Complementing this, Age Well SG was introduced to keep seniors socially engaged and active – combating loneliness through inclusive senior-friendly environments, exercise groups, and community activities.
More Active Ageing Hubs in Every Neighbourhood: To enable seniors to stay connected, the government will expand physical touchpoints like Active Ageing Centres (AACs). In towns like Toa Payoh (where nearly 25% of residents are 65+), there are 13 AACs but some seniors still live over 1km away from the nearest center. New sites will be added within HDB estates so that older residents have easier access to activities and services right in their “backyards”. With more space and centers, seniors can enjoy a greater variety of activities (from gym sessions and cardio drumming to even kickboxing classes) and regular meet-ups with peers. Such hubs are meant to be lively gathering places where seniors not only receive support but also volunteer and contribute – for example, one group of seniors even runs DIY wheelchair repair meetups to help others. These efforts recognize that seniors want to stay active, engaged, and keep learning, not just be passive recipients of care.
Expanding Home-Based Services: A crucial new initiative is to deliver more services directly to seniors at home, so that “they prefer to age where they are” can be supported. The PM announced that home-based eldercare services will be broadened to include not only simple health checks and home fixes, but also housekeeping, laundry, meal delivery, and help with daily living activities like bathing or feeding. Seniors can choose the services they need, and dedicated care staff will coordinate these offerings – visiting seniors regularly and even acting as first responders in emergencies. This is a major push to allow seniors to age in place safely. Mr. Wong acknowledged there’s a limit to building new assisted-living flats, and “many seniors don’t want to move out” of their long-time homes. Therefore, the government will bring support to them – ensuring care and assistance is available at home in every neighbourhood, so that older people can remain in familiar surroundings as they age.
Bringing Healthcare Closer to Seniors: To reduce the need for frequent hospital visits, healthcare services will be brought closer to the community. PM Wong revealed plans for public hospitals to set up “health posts” in residential areas. These local health posts, staffed by nurses and allied health professionals, will help with post-discharge follow-ups, medication management, and basic health consultations. Seniors can drop by these nearby posts for routine care “without having to travel to a clinic” or hospital. Additionally, more rehabilitation and physiotherapy facilities will be built across the island for those needing therapy services. Together, these efforts mean older patients can get medical advice and rehab services right in their neighbourhood, improving convenience and encouraging them to seek care early. It’s a community-based model akin to the idea of “retirement villages” elsewhere, but adapted to Singapore’s context – integrating seniors within ordinary HDB towns rather than isolating them.
“Age Well Neighbourhoods” – Ageing in the Community: All the above measures form part of the new Age Well Neighbourhoods concept. Instead of creating stand-alone retirement enclaves, Singapore will imbue existing towns with senior-friendly features and services among residents of all ages. Pilots will start in Toa Payoh and a couple of other areas with older demographics. The vision is “a Singapore where every senior – no matter where they stay – can age with dignity, purpose and joy”, supported by neighbors and friends. In these Age Well Neighbourhoods, seniors will live not in isolation but as part of an extended community family, with easy access to care services, social activities, and emergency assistance when needed. This rallying call reinforces the “together as one Singapore family” ethos, emphasizing that as the nation ages, no senior should be left behind or feel alone.
Accessible, Community-Based Care
We believe healthcare for seniors should be brought closer to home, just as PM Wong emphasized. Many older patients dislike long hospital trips, so Alami Clinic is based in the community (just behind Kembangan MRT) and designed to be senior-friendly and convenient. For patients who cannot or prefer not to travel, we bring care to them—through our homecare services across Singapore. This commitment to “ageing in place” ensures patients can remain in familiar surroundings, while still receiving comprehensive care.
Affordable, Quality Treatment for Seniors
Accessibility must go hand-in-hand with affordability. Alami Clinic was founded to make specialist geriatric care both transparent and cost-friendly for families. By operating in a neighbourhood setting rather than a high-cost hospital, and leveraging team-based efficiencies, we keep prices fair without compromising quality. While the Rally did not explicitly mention healthcare costs, the spirit of “leaving no one behind” underscores the importance of affordability.
Team-Based, Holistic Approach
The Rally’s vision of coordinated support resonates with our multidisciplinary approach. Our core team includes:
Dr. Nur Farhan Alami, Consultant Geriatrician and Clinic Director
Dr. Shafia, Consultant Geriatrician
Dr. Zahran, GP who mainly sees younger patients but also supports with geriatric care when needed
Imran Shah, Pharmacist and Co-Founder, focusing on medication optimisation and preventive health
Ginny and Safia, our dedicated nurses who conduct geriatric pre-assessments and follow up with patients by phone to monitor progress and prevent complications
Annie, our clinic executive who makes sure everything else runs well
Together we have partners who work with us to support our patients, including:
Kimberly, Physiotherapist from Balance Physio (https://balancephysiotherapy.sg)
Dr Lum Zheng Kang, Pharmacist from Collabring Health (https://www.collabring.com)
Munir, Exercise Physiologist
Linda, Nursing Manager of SALO, a home nursing provider
Together, this team ensures that seniors’ needs—medical, functional, and psychosocial—are comprehensively addressed. For instance, a patient with diabetes and mobility challenges may receive medical care from our doctors, a medication review from Dr Lum, strength and balance training from our therapists, and structured follow-up calls from Ginny or Safia to keep them on track. As Dr. Farhan often reminds us: “Healthcare is a team sport.”
Interestingly, team-based care is important to ensure affordability. If a nurse can review the patient’s wound or administer an injection, we get the nurse to see the patient and only call in the doctor if additional input is needed or for an update. This preserves the doctor’s time to review more patients and decide on treatment plans. Our nurses are trained to conduct the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) before geriatrician review to ensure that our doctor can focus on the patients’ main problems. We are even working towards a collaborative prescribing agreement where the pharmacist can review patients who need medication optimisation and management and sign prescriptions without a doctor’s input. These efforts enable all healthcare professionals to perform at the top their license!
“Our PM spoke about community-based services and dedicated care teams. Pharmacists are often the first line of defense in medication safety. At Alami Clinic, I work alongside our geriatrician and nurses to ensure medicines are optimized—fewer side effects, lower costs, and better adherence.”
Focus on Prevention & Wellness
A major takeaway from NDR 2025 is the push for Singaporeans to stay healthy for longer. Alami Clinic wholeheartedly agrees that “our health-span should be closer to our life-span.” We have recently piloted vaccination drives in the community or at events with many elderly to target those who may not be vaccinated. We have also consistently conducted or collaborated on health screening events to support other good work done in the community.
Building Social Connection
Finally, ageing well is not only about health—it is about staying active and connected. Alami Clinic partners with community centres and senior groups to run exercise sessions (chair yoga, stretching), host dementia awareness talks, and conduct healthy cooking workshops. We also aspire to co-locate future clinics with dementia cafés—creating spaces where patients and caregivers can meet in comfort.
Our Commitment and Next Steps
Inspired by the National Day Rally 2025, Alami Clinic is more determined than ever to contribute to Singapore’s vision of successful ageing. We see the government’s roadmap as deeply affirming our own mission, and we are excited to be an active partner in this journey. In light of the rally’s announcements, here is how Alami Clinic will respond and ramp up our efforts:
Supporting “Age Well Neighbourhoods”: We welcome the Age Well Neighbourhoods initiative and the plan to embed services in every community. Alami Clinic will explore ways to collaborate with community partners in pilot neighbourhoods like Toa Payoh. For example, we can organize mobile clinic days or health talks at local senior activity centers, so that residents can get medical advice, blood pressure/glucose checks, and medication reviews conveniently near their homes. In fact, we are currently in talks with a assisted living facility developer to embed clinical services in their neighbourhood. We will also work with grassroots organizations to identify seniors in these neighborhoods who may benefit from home visits – ensuring those who “prefer to age where they are” receive the care they need. As a pharmacist, specifically, I am enthusiastic to test and develop models whereby I can support geriatric care, either via collaborative prescribing, or simply medication counselling. By sharing our expertise in geriatric medicine with community care providers, we aim to strengthen the network of support around each senior. Our goal is to be a bridge between the formal healthcare system and the community, complementing the new health posts and rehab centers with our specialist-led services. Ultimately, building an inclusive, senior-friendly neighbourhood is a team effort, and Alami Clinic is eager to do our part.
Expanding Preventive Health Outreach: In line with the rally’s preventive health focus, we plan to expand our outreach programs so that more older Singaporeans can benefit. Moving forward, Alami Clinic will organize more health screening events in various heartland locations – bringing checks for chronic conditions to seniors who may not otherwise get screened. More importantly, we will continue to carefully strategise our screenings so that we may reach pockets of the population who have not been screened or vaccinated. We are also stepping up our vaccination outreach, possibly by deploying a small team to senior clubs or residential blocks during flu season to offer on-site vaccinations. Considering our commitment to affordability, we are thinking of how we may conduct vaccination drives in rental neighbourhoods to target patients who may otherwise be unable to vaccinate. Education remains key: our geriatrician, Dr Farhan (who will be speaking about the Rally on an upcoming media podcast) and her medical team will continue to advocate public health messages like reducing sugar and salt intake, staying physically active, and joining community activities. We plan to create bite-sized health tip videos and social media content targeting older adults and their caregivers, reinforcing the rally’s advice that simple lifestyle changes can yield big health benefits. By proactively engaging seniors before they fall ill, we hope to contribute to the nation’s aim of adding healthy years to everyone’s life. As Dr Farhan always says: we want to keep older people not just living longer — but living well, longer.
Enhancing Our Home Care Services: The new home-based services initiative encourages us to further grow our home care capabilities. Alami Clinic will continue to work towards providing subsidised caregiver training to support patients who need more care at home. We will also continue to invest in training and resources to manage a higher volume of house calls, so that we can accommodate the expected rise in demand as more seniors opt for home-based support. At the same time, we need to access subsidies to allow more patients to access these homecare services. We are also looking into leveraging technology – for instance, using remote monitoring apps or telehealth follow-ups – to complement physical home visits by our doctors and nurses. The idea is to create a safety net for homebound seniors, where our clinic can be alerted early to any health deterioration even between visits. In addition, we are strengthening partnerships with home nursing providers, physiotherapists, and care aides in the community, to ensure that when a senior under our care needs extra help (be it wound dressing, home rehab exercises, or assistance with daily activities), we can seamlessly connect them to reliable services. In fact, we have started to do this with the HSG Teams referral initiated by Singhealth, where patients can get a variety of services they need with the support of public instituitions. This cohesive approach reflects the rally’s vision of dedicated care staff coordinating home services 24/7 for seniors. We know that enabling seniors to live at home confidently requires quick response and coordination, so we’re committed to being responsive and well-coordinated for our patients and their families.
Advocating “Togetherness” in Senior Care: Perhaps the most uplifting message from NDR 2025 was the call for a “we first” mindset and the reminder that as Singapore ages, we must all pull together as one family. Alami Clinic strongly believes in this community spirit. In fact, a “we first” mindset is essential in our team-based practice where we work together as a team without the traditional mindset as the ‘doctor first’. Most of our patients see our friendly nurses first! Beyond providing medical services, we strive to foster connections – whether it’s connecting caregivers with support groups or introducing our patients to social activities in their area. We will continue to advocate against senior isolation. For instance, if we identify patients who are lonely or have no family support, our team makes it a point to link them up with befriender programs or volunteer visitors. For this, we will continue to engage and network with more family service centres. We also plan to host regular community gatherings (health talks followed by tea sessions, etc.) at our clinic or nearby venues, where seniors and caregivers can meet one another, share experiences, and build friendships. One of our dreams I hope we can realise, is the co-location of a dementia café with our clinic, where patients with dementia and their caregivers can hang out comfortably. By doing so, we echo the rally’s sentiment that “we will grow old not in isolation, never alone, but always together”. Our director Dr. Farhan, in the upcoming podcast, will emphasize that caring for seniors is a whole-of-society effort – families, healthcare providers, volunteers, and policymakers all have a role. Alami Clinic is committed to nurturing this “kampung spirit” of mutual support, so that every elderly person feels valued and included in our society.
In conclusion, Alami Clinic stands ready to support and actualize the National Day Rally 2025 vision. We are inspired by PM Wong’s leadership in prioritizing the well-being of our seniors, and we share the same deep commitment to this cause. Our clinic will continue to provide personalized, specialist-led care for older adults – now with even greater focus on the national priorities of preventive health, ageing-in-place, and community engagement. We believe that by working hand-in-hand with the government’s initiatives, we can help ensure that all Singaporean seniors “age with dignity, purpose and joy” in the community they call home. Alami Clinic remains devoted to giving every patient the care they deserve, and to building a future where our elders are healthy, supported, and never alone. Together with our fellow Singaporeans, we look forward to “building a better future, together” for our ageing population – one where longevity is celebrated and supported with compassion at every step.
As a pharmacist, I see first-hand how proper medication management and preventive care, such as vaccinations and screenings, can keep older adults healthier, longer, and out of hospitals. I’m proud to be a community pharmacist with innovative ideas on how we can manage patients better in-place, without or before having to visit a hospital. We are proud to support Singapore’s vision of building Age Well Neighbourhoods where seniors can age with dignity, purpose, and joy.