Monitoring Adoption of Flexible Work Arrangement Guidelines by Healthcare Institutions
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the monitoring of the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) Requests and the support provided to healthcare employers to balance manpower limitations with work-life balance. Mr Yip Hon Weng and Dr Wan Rizal enquired about tracking effectiveness in community care, maintaining patient care standards, and incentivising alternative job-sharing solutions. Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung replied that while rostered shifts ensure service continuity and safety, frontline requests for part-time or fixed shifts are considered objectively based on organisational and patient needs. He highlighted that office-based work offers greater flexibility and noted that the Ministry values contingency planning incorporating FWA aspects based on pandemic experiences. The Ministry continues to manage these arrangements within a tight manpower environment to ensure high standards of care and safety are sustained.
Transcript
61 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health with the recently released Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests (a) how will the Ministry track the effectiveness of these guidelines, especially in the community care sector which has limited staff strength and frontline facing jobs; (b) how will the Ministry support employers to overcome manpower limitations while creating a working environment with better work-life balance; and (c) whether the Ministry will incentivise employers who come up with alternative job-sharing solutions, besides the use of grants or financial incentives.
62 Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Health what specific measures are in place to support flexible work arrangements for healthcare workers while ensuring that patient care standards are maintained.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: While flexible work arrangements may be more easily implemented in some working environments, certain professions, such as healthcare workers, operate on rosters to ensure continuity of service and high standards of care and safety for our patients. As the manpower situation is tight for the healthcare sector, when a frontline staff requests for part-time or fixed shift work, our clusters will consider them sympathetically and objectively based on the needs of the organisation and patients.
For office-based work, there is greater scope for flexible work arrangements. In fact, as frontline agencies in the fight against COVID-19, the Ministry of Health and related agencies fully appreciate the value of contingency planning, which incorporates aspects of flexible work arrangements.