Extending Award for Nurses' Grace, Excellence and Loyalty Scheme to Encourage Retention of Nurses

98 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will consider extending the Award for Nurses' Grace, Excellence and Loyalty (ANGEL) scheme, which is a retention scheme to attract and encourage nurses to build a lifelong career in the public healthcare system, to nurses from private hospitals.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: There are no plans to extend the Award for Nurses' Grace, Excellence and Loyalty (ANGEL) scheme to nurses working in the private sector.

The ANGEL scheme is designed to encourage nurses to stay and build their careers in the public healthcare institutions and publicly-funded community care organisations. Private hospitals are welcomed to implement their own retention scheme through self-funding, bearing in mind these are unsubsidised and typically commercially-run hospitals. Private hospitals have their own remuneration practices to reward and recognise their nurses.