Change in Average and Median Nurse-to-patient Ratio for General Wards and Intensive Care Units of Public Acute Hospitals in Past Three Years

8 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health for each year in the past three years, what is the change in the average and median nurse-to-patient ratio for (i) general wards and (ii) intensive care units of the public acute hospitals.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: As shared in an earlier answer in 2022, the average nurse-to-patient ratio for general wards in the public acute hospitals remains unchanged at around one nurse for every four or five patients. [Please refer to "Nurse-to-patient Ratio and Efforts to Reduce Nurses' Administrative Workload", Official Report, 2 August 2022, Vol 95, Issue 66, Oral Answers to Questions section.]

In the Intensive Care Units (ICU), the ratio is higher at about one to two nurses for every ICU patient, depending on the complexity of each case.