24k more nurses, healthcare staff needed by 2030 as Singapore ages

With the number of elderly Singaporeans on the rise, a system to care for the aged is set to become a critical part of the nation's healthcare landscape.

The new initiative to prevent illnesses and keep citizens healthy is a move in that direction, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told Parliament on Wednesday.

One key challenge is to find enough foreign nurses to supplement local ones to care for the elderly.

Mr Ong said nurses, allied health professionals and support care staff are needed to operate hospitals, clinics and also eldercare centres.

"They number 58,000 now and MOH (Ministry of Health) estimates that this will need to grow to 82,000 by 2030," he added.

He also pointed out that by 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above, up from one in six today.

In his closing speech on the debate on the Healthier SG White Paper, Mr Ong underlined the need to prepare for a rapidly ageing population and also the urgency to attract foreign nurses.

He said Singapore's healthcare system is not one system but three interconnected systems working together to deliver good health.

The first is the acute care system, comprising hospitals and emergency departments, where people are treated when they get very sick. Then there is the public health system, which includes the control of infectious diseases as well as population health, which is being beefed up through Healthier SG.

The third one is the aged care system, which is not just about nursing homes, which continue to be built, but enabling seniors to age in the community.

"As a society, we must guard against the assumption that seniors will always become sick and frail," he said.

An estimated 97 per cent of seniors above 65 can either live independently or with some help in the community today.

But he also pointed out that an expanding aged population needs more healthcare. And since there simply are not enough local nurses available for this, Singapore will have to rely on more foreign nurses.

Replying to several MPs, including Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang) and Mr Dennis Tan (Hougang), Mr Ong said there has been no exodus of local nurses and efforts are afoot to raise the intake of nursing students locally to 2,300, from 2,100 currently.

But many foreign nurses had left Singapore for other countries, he said.

While locals will continue to form the bulk of the nursing workforce, the number and role of foreign nurses will grow.

"If we want to take care of our seniors and the sick, if we want to reduce the workload of healthcare workers, we must expect foreign healthcare workers to play a bigger role in the coming years," said Mr Ong.

"This is especially so in areas that are facing a bigger manpower crunch, like aged care or palliative care."

In response to Nominated MP and breast surgeon Tan Yia Swam's suggestion of granting permanent residency to the good performers, given the heightened international competition for nurses, Mr Ong said MOH is supportive of this.

Permanent residency applications are assessed holistically and the important contributions of healthcare workers will certainly be considered, he said, alongside MOH's support for foreign healthcare workers when evaluating their applications.

Singaporeans and permanent residents make up about 72 per cent of Singapore's pool of registered nurses and 63 per cent of enrolled nurses, who assist them. The rest are foreigners.

Mr Ong said MOH will broaden training for existing nurses, allied health professionals and pharmacists so that they can take on crucial roles alongside doctors.

"But first there must be enough people to train," he said,