Clarification by Minister for Health
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This clarification concerns factual corrections made by Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung regarding his speech during the Committee of Supply debate on 6 March 2024. Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung clarified that Changi General Hospital contains six ambulance bays instead of the four originally cited. He further corrected the annual cohort size to slightly over 35,000, noting that about half of these students enroll in autonomous universities. The correction specifies that 500 of these students are training to be doctors, representing a 30% increase in local medical school intakes over the past decade. These amendments were formally circulated to ensure the accuracy of the Hansard record regarding healthcare infrastructure and medical education statistics.
Transcript
The following statements were made in the speech given by the Minister for Health (Mr Ong Ye Kung) during the Committee of Supply debate for the Ministry of Health at the Sitting of 6 March 2024:
(a) The Minister for Health (Mr Ong Ye Kung): Mr Ang Wei Neng raised the issue of Changi General Hospital which was also reported in a Straits Times article. Changi is an old structure. It only has four ambulance bays. [Please refer to "Committee of Supply – Head O (Ministry of Health)", Official Report, 6 March 2024, Vol 95, Issue 131, Budget section.]
(b) Mr Ong Ye Kung: In fact, intakes into our local medical schools have increased by about 30% over the past 10 years, to about 500 now. If you consider each cohort, it is now slightly over 30,000. About half of them, 15,000 or so, 15,000 to 17,000 go to university; and out of that group, 500 are training to be doctors. [Please refer to "Committee of Supply – Head O (Ministry of Health)", Official Report, 6 March 2024, Vol 95, Issue 131, Budget section.]
Written statement by Mr Ong Ye Kung circulated with leave of the Speaker in accordance with Standing Order No 29(5):
I wish to make the following factual corrections to the speech during the Committee of Supply debate on 6 March 2024. The statements above should respectively be read as follows:
(a) The Minister for Health (Mr Ong Ye Kung): Mr Ang Wei Neng raised the issue of Changi General Hospital which was also reported in a Straits Times article. Changi is an old structure. It only has six ambulance bays.
(b) Mr Ong Ye Kung: In fact, intakes into our local medical schools have increased by about 30% over the past 10 years, to about 500 now. If you consider each cohort, it is now slightly over 35,000. About half of them go to autonomous universities; and out of that group, 500 are training to be doctors.