Ensuring Public Safety when Seeking Mental Healthcare Services and Standards of Practice within the Mental Healthcare Profession
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns ensuring public safety and professional standards in mental healthcare, as raised by Ms Yip Pin Xiu. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong stated that licensed institutions monitor service quality and that practitioner credentials can be verified via the Singapore Medical Council or associations like the Singapore Psychological Society. He noted that doctors must undergo continuing medical education for license renewal, while the Skills Framework for Social Service outlines competencies for psychologists. Feedback and complaints are managed through the Ministry of Health, healthcare institutions, and the Singapore Medical Council. Additionally, the Healthcare Manpower Development Plan provides fellowships for specialised training and facilitates knowledge transfer from overseas experts to local mental health professionals.
Transcript
3 Ms Yip Pin Xiu asked the Minister for Health (a) what is being done to ensure public safety when the public seek mental healthcare; (b) how can the general public check that mental health practitioners are competent and fit to practice; and (c) what is being done to uphold standards of practice within the mental healthcare profession.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: Licensed healthcare institutions and clinics providing mental health services have systems in place to ensure that psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals are adequately trained. They also need to have mechanisms to monitor the quality of services provided and address any complaints.
The list of registered doctors and their credentials are available on the Singapore Medical Council's website. Psychologists may choose to register with their professional associations. The public can refer to the websites of private psychology associations, such as the Singapore Psychological Society, for listings of psychologists registered with them.
Both MOH and our healthcare institutions have systems in place to look into feedback or complaints against mental health practitioners. Patients may also lodge a complaint against doctors, including psychiatrists, with the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).
To uphold and improve standards, the SMC requires doctors, including psychiatrists, to undergo continuing medical education before their practicing certificates can be renewed. For other professionals such as psychologists, the Skills Framework for Social Service spells out the skills and competencies required for each job. The framework helps healthcare providers, training providers and the professionals to identify training needs and develop training programmes to upskill these professionals.
In addition, MOH and our healthcare institutions provide fellowships under the Healthcare Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) to send mental health professionals for specialised training. The HMDP scheme also facilitates visits by reputed overseas experts to Singapore to transfer knowledge and capability to local mental health professionals.