Measuring Quality of Healthcare Delivery and Adequacy of Healthcare Resources

13 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) what benchmarks are used to measure the quality of healthcare delivery and the adequacy of healthcare resources, such as staffing and infrastructure; and (b) how does the Ministry determine whether our elderly healthcare needs are sufficiently covered by the Pioneer Generation Package and MediShield Life.

The Minister for Health (Mr Gan Kim Yong): Madam, Singapore's healthcare system has served us well. With our life expectancies at birth of 81.9 years in 2015, Singapore residents are not just living longer, but are also enjoying more healthy years of life. We were ranked first and third in the world for male and female Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE) respectively, according to a 2015 Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) by The Lancet. There are certainly areas where we can still improve.

In addition to quality of care, the Ministry of Health (MOH) continues to invest in developing healthcare infrastructure, manpower and technology in line with our Healthcare 2020 Masterplan so as to meet our current and future healthcare needs. Between 2014 and 2020, we will add about 3,500 more acute and community hospital beds, 6,300 more nursing home beds as well as 8,300 more home and centre-based care places.

Under the 2020 Healthcare Manpower Plan announced recently, we are taking steps to expand our healthcare workforce by 30,000 between 2015 and 2020 to meet the changing needs of Singapore's population. Through care redesign and adoption of technology, we will further enhance the delivery of healthcare services.

Besides improving quality and access, we have also substantially improved healthcare affordability to provide better assurance, especially to our elderly. For example, the Pioneer Generation Package, which many of us are familiar with, provides significant support for Pioneers. Since the Package was launched in 2014, more than 400,000 Pioneers have benefited from it and the Government has provided over $700 million in benefits in total.

MediShield Life now provides lifetime protection for large hospitalisation bills for all Singaporeans, including coverage for the elderly, many of whom were previously uninsured or unable to obtain coverage. In its first 11 months, MediShield Life paid out about $282 million for claims by older Singaporeans aged above 65, almost double the total $151 million payout under the previous MediShield over the same period last year.

MOH will continue to review affordability and coverage of healthcare for the elderly, while ensuring that our healthcare financing system is sustainable over the long term.

Mdm Speaker: Ms Joan Pereira.

Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar): Madam, I thank the Minister for his reply. We all know that there are great physical and mental demands on our healthcare workers and this might affect the quality of care provided. So, I am very happy to hear that we will be expanding the healthcare workforce. Would the Minister consider allocating more funds to manage the well-being and stresses that our healthcare workers will face, especially now with an ageing population?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Madam, as the Member has pointed out, we have an ageing population going forward and this will continue to add demand on the healthcare system as well as our healthcare workers. We will continue to work on our journey to transform our care delivery system so that it is more effective and sustainable in the long term. I mentioned this during the Committee of Supply debate. We are moving from hospital to community: we are moving from quality to value. At the same time, we are also moving from healthcare upstream to health. These are three key shifts that will make sure that our healthcare, healthcare system and healthcare workers will be sustainable in the long term.

Healthcare, indeed, is a very demanding career but it is a very meaningful and rewarding one. That is what drives Singaporeans to want to join this sector. I want to take this opportunity to thank all our healthcare workers for their dedication. But all of us can make their job easier in many ways. I have shared our efforts over the last few years.

The Government has improved the career prospects for our healthcare workers. For example, for nursing, we introduced the Care Package to improve their recognition, to provide more opportunities for career advancements as well as training, education and development. These are very important efforts. We have also rolled out a campaign "Care To Go Beyond" to profile many of our healthcare workers, including allied health professionals as well as support staff, to ensure that they have a fulfilling and rewarding career and are well-recognised.

Healthcare institutions can also play their part by providing greater support for these healthcare workers, as the Member pointed out, and provide more opportunities and take care of their personal aspirations as well as their needs.

But, more importantly, I believe all of us can play our part, too, whether we are patients, family members helping to take care of the patients or as a general member of the public. Very often, when we give due recognition to the contribution of the healthcare workers, it will help them in their work. As I mentioned many times before in this House, a simple "Thank You" card will go a long way in making a healthcare worker's job a lot easier. I believe that if we work together, we will be able to help our healthcare workers do a better job to take care of our loved ones.