Allocation of Resources for Singapore Medical Council to Process Complaints

17 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the current allocation of resources for the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) to process complaints; and (b) how does the Ministry plan to ensure that SMC receives sufficient resources to facilitate the timely investigation and expeditious resolution of complaint cases.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) depends on both its own manpower resources as well as an external volunteer pool, such as doctors and lawyers, to support the handling of various complaints and discipline cases. SMC has expanded its resources over the past few years to better manage their workload.

Equally important is to have processes that are streamlined and efficient. The amendments to the Medical Registration Act in July 2022, resulting in the introduction of Inquiry Committees and the ability for SMC to tap on a wider pool of chairmen for complaints-related committees, has helped improve the efficiency of SMC. SMC has also enhanced training for committee and tribunal members and worked with the Academy of Medicine Singapore and the College of Family Physicians Singapore to expedite the processing and completion of expert reports. These efforts have resulted in improvements where 70% of the complaints lodged in 2022 were concluded within the year, compared to the 23% in 2018.

The Ministry of Health will continue to work with SMC to facilitate the timely conclusion of complaint cases.

Mr Speaker: Mr Yip Hong Weng.

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply. I have a very short supplementary question.

Besides increasing the resources to deal with resolution of complaint cases, will the Ministry also consider enhancing the policies and processes to weed out baseless or frivolous complaints which contribute to congestion within the system and this includes perhaps implementing penalties for individuals who file these cases?

Dr Janil Puthucheary: I thank Mr Yip for his supplementary question.

We do have some processes in place. If the Member would like specific details about the management of the complaints process and the outcomes, I suggest he files a separate Parliamentary Question. This one was about resource allocation.

But if I could just take him through the thinking and framework that we have for the SMC's disciplinary process; it is not a single process. There is not a single committee. I say this because it depends on how you define "baseless".

The reason for a complaint is that the complainant, the family or the patient has a concern. There may be an issue of communication or the care that is delivered. So, there needs to be some investigation and some processes to ascertain the facts, whether or not there are lessons to be learnt or actions taken. So, we have Inquiry Committees, Complaints Committees and the Disciplinary Tribunal. We also have the processes that potentially could go up to the High Court.

So, where you then define "baseless", I think it is not necessarily particularly useful because what is important is that, with the concern, the investigation has proceeded and the facts are established, and then the appropriate action is taken.

I think the Member has a separate point, which is whether or not there should be action taken to prevent frivolous complaints. I think the main thing that we would need to have is a clear sense of responsibility among the care teams to engage with the families and the patients to explain the processes for their care so that, when there is a misunderstanding, this can be dealt with long before a formal complaints process is engaged with.

That is the starting position that we have around this issue. But we are happy to take in suggestions and optimise our processes further.

3.59 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the Day.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix, unless Members had asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn.]