SINGAPORE - Setting a timeline to upskill and raise salaries for workers who provide intermediate- and long-term care services will be critical to getting more Singaporeans to take on such jobs, said President Halimah Yacob.
At a dialogue with healthcare workers on Wednesday, she called for the professionalisation of jobs done in settings such as nursing homes and eldercare centres.
This means a pathway for such workers to upgrade their skills and have their training recognised through better pay, benefits and employment terms. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to attract Singaporeans to the sector, given the tremendous demands of such care work, which may involve night shifts and caring for dementia patients, she said.
President Halimah said this in response to a point raised by a union leader, who said workers in the community care sector may have been overlooked during the pandemic and asked that more be done for them.
The dialogue at the Istana involved 36 healthcare union leaders, including nurses, administrators and patient service staff from the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU) and Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers’ Union (SMMWU). The unions represent workers from the public and private healthcare sectors.
Other issues raised during the dialogue included how to attract and retain nurses, as well as calls for better work-life balance for healthcare workers. One participant suggested a shift to a four-day work week, with reduced working hours.
Noting that the public healthcare clusters today have chief wellness officers responsible for the well-being of their healthcare staff, Madam Halimah urged workers to provide feedback, as well as to work closely with their unions to foster a supportive work environment.
Given the manpower crunch and 24/7 requirements of hospitals, it would be very challenging for hospitals to shorten the work week, said Madam Halimah as she urged healthcare workers to work with their organisation and union to find solutions to balancing work and life.
Among the things that can be further looked into is reducing administrative work for nurses so that they can focus more on patient care, suggested Madam Halimah.
She drew an analogy with the Ministry of Education, which over the years has found ways to reduce teachers’ administrative burden.
“If you reduce the administrative workload, maybe some part of it, (then) we help you so that you can do more patient care and (feel) less stress,” she said.
Madam Halimah also highlighted the Government’s plan to employ almost 4,000 new nurses by end-2023, and noted that the fight for healthcare talent is a global one that many countries are grappling with.
In March, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) immediate priority is to beef up manpower resources in the healthcare sector, as having sufficient workers is “fundamentally the best safeguard for their welfare”.
He said Singapore will need to increase the number of nurses and support care staff by about 40 per cent, from 49,000 to 69,000 in 2030.
The Republic will therefore go through a period of increased inflow of foreign nurses, partly because of their higher attrition in recent years, said MOH.
Madam Halimah noted that MOH is also encouraging students and mid-career professionals to take up nursing so that there is a steady pipeline of local talent.
But she said: “Not everyone can be a nurse. You must have strong commitment, passion, interest and strong interpersonal skills.”
Wednesday’s dialogue was the sixth time that Madam Halimah has engaged union leaders from various sectors since 2019 to find out about issues and challenges facing workers here.
