Proposal for Association for Intermediate and Long-term Care Institutions

3 Ms K Thanaletchimi asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will consider forming an association for intermediate and long-term care institutions that is similar to the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises so that these institutions can collectively benefit from sharing of best practices, standards, staff training and economies of scale.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Lam Pin Min) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, institutions providing intermediate and long-term care services can, indeed, benefit from the sharing of best practices, standards, staff training as well as pooling of resources for better economies of scale. Today, there are already representative bodies that organise such efforts, sometimes in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC). Examples include the Singapore Hospice Council and the Association of Private Nursing Home Operators. In addition, most of the voluntary welfare organisation (VWO) providers in this sector are members of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). NCSS' key roles include raising the capabilities of the VWO members and strengthening partnerships among them.

These representative bodies are complemented by AIC, which plays the roles of sector developer and coordinator. AIC convenes regular sector-wide platforms to raise the quality of care, build up competencies and facilitate effective practices across the sector. In recent years, AIC has promulgated standards, such as the Enhanced Nursing Home Standards and Guidelines for Home and Centre-based Care, and convened industry committees to develop strategies and initiatives in quality improvement and manpower development. AIC has also brought providers together for better economies of scale in areas, such as procurement of consumables and organisation of transport services, and intends to extend this to new shared services, such as security and waste management.

The current structures are serving us well. We will continue to assess how we can better promote the interests of the Intermediate and Long-Term Care (ILTC) sector and to raise the level of industry practices and professionalism of ILTC sector workers.

Mr Speaker: Ms Thanaletchimi.

Ms K Thanaletchimi (Nominated Member): Sir, I have a clarification. In regard to AIC that is being the focal point of bringing all the ILTC institutions together, there are different forms of ILTC institutions. Some are VWOs, some are privately-owned, some are kind of supported by MOH. How can they among themselves cross-learn the best practices and, at the same time, be more cohesive to be able to transfer skills and share skills where it is needed, because there are small and big institutions within the ILTC sector?

Dr Lam Pin Min: I would like to thank Ms Thanaletchmi for the supplementary question. Indeed, she is right that there is a bit of unevenness amongst the various providers. That is why MOH felt that it is probably not the right time to have an ILTC association as such. With AIC being the sector developer and coordinator, we are able to help each and every individual operator to level up. I would like to assure Ms Thanaletchmi that we have not precluded the idea of an ILTC association in the future. We will watch this space very closely.