Monitoring of Manpower Policies in Hospitals with Respect To Rest and Leave Days of Nurses and Doctors
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the monitoring of hospital manpower policies regarding rest and leave days for nurses and doctors to ensure compliance with the Employment Act during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang inquired about work hour limits during the Omicron wave and sought information on healthcare worker resignation rates and retention strategies. Senior Minister of State Dr Koh Poh Koon responded that rest provisions are governed by the Employment Act or employment contracts, with overtime pay provided for essential additional work. He explained that hospitals manage workloads by deferring non-urgent treatments and allowing staff leave whenever possible, while the Ministry of Health works to stabilize the situation. Senior Minister of State Dr Koh Poh Koon noted that comprehensive strategies to support staff and boost manpower would be further detailed during the upcoming Committee of Supply debates.
Transcript
5 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry monitors manpower policies in hospitals with respect to nurses’ and doctors' rest days and off days for compliance with the Employment Act; (b) whether the present Omicron COVID-19 wave constitutes a situation under section 38(2) of the Employment Act which allows an employer to require an employee to exceed the limit of hours worked and to work on a rest day; and (c) how it ensures nurses and doctors have sufficient rest.
The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Koh Poh Koon) (for the Minister for Health): Sir, rest day provisions and work hour limits for public healthcare workers are governed by the Employment Act. For those healthcare workers that are not covered by the Employment Act, their rest day provisions and work hour limits are set out in public healthcare clusters’ employment contracts.
COVID-19 has stretched our healthcare resources and placed a heavy burden on healthcare staff. All our public healthcare workers have been working doubly hard in this time of crisis. Whenever there is essential and urgent need that requires overtime work, employers will accord overtime pay as required by section 38 of the Act.
We urge cooperation and understanding from everyone as the hospitals reduce non-urgent and non-life-threatening care treatments to manage workload, decant those who need less intensive care to Community Treatment Facilities and curtailed visitations to hospitals. Public healthcare clusters have allowed staff to rest and recharge by taking days off, including taking annual leave, whenever possible. MOH is supporting them by doing whatever we can and stepping up on vaccination. We hope to turn the corner soon from this current wave of COVID-19 infections.
Mr Speaker: Mr Louis Ng.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. Could I just check, specifically, whether MOH has studied this issue further? In terms of overtime hours, how much are the nurses working overtime, the doctors as well during the past few months or two years in this pandemic? Two, I think it is really a manpower crunch. So, is MOH also studying the resignation rate, especially among the experienced healthcare workers, whom I understand are, leaving more as compared to the junior staff? And also, what is MOH doing to try and retain these workers?
Dr Koh Poh Koon: I thank the Member for his concern on the workload of our healthcare workers. As I have said, this is a crisis of a generation and it is the truth that many of our healthcare workers are going above and beyond their call of duty, extended hours, also in the primary care sector, our GPs as well. But this is their commitment to respond to the crisis and pulling their weight to make sure they become a strong last line of defence for our safety and our health.
In MOH's Committee of Supply (COS) in the next few days, we will be giving a fuller response on some of the strategies that MOH will look at to support our healthcare staff and also to look at boosting our manpower resources over the coming decade. So, I hope the Member will give us time and we will share more and details in the coming COS.