Junior Doctors' Access to Healthcare and Patient Database as They Start Their Posting at Public Hospitals

29 Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health (a) since 2022, how many junior doctors starting their first day posting at a public hospital cluster or a cross-cluster deployment do not have a fully functioning and useable healthcare information technology (IT) account for login to that cluster's healthcare IT system; and (b) what action is being taken to prevent such disruptions from affecting patient care and healthcare workers.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: All doctors working in our public healthcare institutions (PHIs) are given an information technology (IT) account to access the Electronic Medical Records Systems. This is primarily for doctors to access patient records to perform their clinical duties, such as ordering medication and documenting treatment plans.

Around 90% of new junior doctors typically have their accounts set up on the first day of work. However, this may take up to two weeks for some new junior doctors during surge periods, where more than 1,000 new junior doctors participate in the House Officer and Medical Officer posting exercises in January, April and July each year. Pending the creation of their IT accounts, junior doctors will be supported by their clinical team members who have IT access to ensure that patient care is not compromised.

Synapxe, the national HealthTech agency, has been working with PHIs to automate and reduce the processing time to create IT accounts, which will be progressively rolled out starting next year.