Comprehensive Audits of Healthcare Institutions Seeking External Accreditation for Continuous Improvement

16 Ms Irene Quay Siew Ching asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the Ministry's position with regard to healthcare institutions seeking external accreditations for continuous improvement; and (b) whether the Ministry is looking into coming up with more comprehensive and progressive audit standards like the Joint Commission International (JCI) to sustain Singapore's reputation of a world-class healthcare system.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Lam Pin Min) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, the healthcare institutions are required to meet core governance, clinical and patient safety and welfare requirements as stipulated in the legislation, as well as licensing and regulatory framework of MOH. MOH carries out regular inspections to verify that these requirements are complied with. These requirements are reviewed regularly to ensure they remain relevant. For example, following a review and public consultation, MOH is working towards replacing the current Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act with a new Healthcare Services Bill that will better meet the needs of a changing healthcare landscape.

At the systems level, MOH also benchmark the performance of our system against international counterparts. We examine how our care outcomes fare in international studies such as the EIU's Healthcare Outcomes Index, Bloomberg's Global Health Index and WHO's World Health Statistics report. We also benchmark ourselves in specific areas, such as our mortality rates in key diseases versus OECD countries. Singapore’s healthcare system has fared well in many of these international comparisons and studies.

In addition to these efforts, MOH encourages and supports quality improvements in healthcare institutions through different initiatives, such as performance monitoring and Quality Improvement programmes, to help healthcare institutions achieve better care quality and excellence.

Some healthcare institutions have voluntarily undertaken external accreditations such as those provided by the Joint Commission International (JCI). These accreditations had been useful in helping our healthcare institutions make continual improvements in their service standards and quality, but we will need to mature beyond traditional accreditation.

Our healthcare landscape is rapidly changing, with emerging challenges in an ageing population, increased complexity of care needs and limited workforce growth. To meet our unique needs, MOH is working with healthcare institutions to develop our own models of care. We are also partnering them as well as leading international organisations such as the JCI to develop more customised quality regimes and standards that meet our needs without imposing excessive burden on our healthcare workforce.

Ms Irene Quay Siew Ching (Nominated Member): Can I ask the Senior Minister of State when will be the timeline for implementation of this new audit system?

Dr Lam Pin Min: Currently, MOH is working with the National Quality Council and the clusters' Public Health Institutions (PHIs) to chart our way forward to ensure that there will be continued care quality and safety. We are also engaging leading international organisations including JCI as well as the Australian Council for Healthcare Standards (ACHS) to share some of the needs of the Singapore healthcare system, so that whatever suggestions that had been submitted to us, actually meet our unique circumstances. One of the purpose of this is to move away from the focus on just relentless auditing which many healthcare workers have given feedback about.

As for the timeline, we will have to come back to Ms Irene Quay. Once we have finalised the decision, we will update the House, as appropriate.