Healthier SG a decisive shift to improve people's health: Ong

Singapore has done all it can to reduce the burden posed by chronic illnesses, but the number of people suffering from conditions such as high blood pressure continues to go up, pushing up healthcare costs.

Hence, the need to shift the strategy towards greater preventive care, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on Wednesday.

Mr Ong said the ministry's Healthier SG initiative to keep people healthier for longer is an important effort to reverse rising costs.

It has already tried many ways of doing so, including evaluations on whether treatments provide value for money, "removing the distortions caused by reckless medical insurance practices", and linking payment with patient outcome.

"It is not too late to shut the dam, and the way that is the most impactful and simplest to understand is to focus on preventive care," Mr Ong told the audience of 1,350 in a keynote address at the Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress at the Singapore Expo.

The National Healthcare Group's two-day annual congress theme for 2022 is "reinventing healthcare", with sessions looking at transforming the healthcare workforce and the impact of technology on care.

Mr Ong said one silver lining is that the prevalence rate for diabetes has remained stable, most likely because of the many measures taken in the country's war on diabetes. But other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels are still going up among adults.

Likening the slide into poor health to people on a travellator who do not notice its movement, the minster said what was "scarier" was that most people with deteriorating health are oblivious to the impending danger they are being carried towards.

Alerting people to this danger, such as through the publicity given to Healthier SG, may prevent them from getting onto the travellator in the first place, he added.

"Clinicians know that preventive steps in our daily lives can fob off severe illnesses later on in life. That is the genesis of our long-term, multi-year healthcare transformation journey, called Healthier SG."

It wants people to take charge of their own health. More are already opting for healthier drinks, Mr Ong said, noting: "Sales of beverages with less than 5 per cent sugar content have gone up, from 37 per cent in 2017 to 60 per cent in 2021."

The mandatory nutrition labelling by the end of 2022 for pre-packed drinks will hopefully nudge even more people to pick healthier options.

People who are in the early stages of chronic diseases will be encouraged to change their lifestyles and return to good health. Family doctors will be brought on board and older people urged to commit to one doctor.

The ministry will subsidise this move from June next year for people aged 60 and older, and reduce the eligible age to 40 in the next few years.

Mr Ong said: "The physical act of enrolment, committing to build a long-lasting patient-doctor relationship, receiving a health plan with diet adjustments and exercise as 'social prescriptions', will hopefully make the penny drop.

"Healthier SG is a decisive shift in focus towards preventive care to improve our population's health, reduce disease burden for the long term, reduce suffering of people, and put our healthcare system on a more sustainable financial footing."