About SG Healthcare Corps

This forum reply was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on February 24, 2022.

Some have been deployed into support care roles, where their nursing background is put to good use in a range of basic clinical tasks, and assisting patients with activities of daily living. Others have received just-in-time training and taken up more specialised roles in vaccination and swab testing operations.

Anyone can play a part during this period, both healthcare professionals and laypeople. We thank all who have stepped forward. Their contributions and expertise have been an invaluable help.

Interested individuals who are committed and available to help us can sign up via the SG Healthcare Corps at www.go.gov.sg/shc-covidops.

This press release was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore, on February 02, 2022.

Supporting Hospitals

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is doing whatever we can to support our healthcare providers. These include ramping up capacity in our hospitals, right-siting patients at COVID-19 Treatment Facilities (CTFs) as much as possible, spreading patient load to private hospitals, allowing residents in nursing homes to recover in-situ and supplementing our healthcare manpower with the SG Healthcare Corps as well as Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medics. We have also further adjusted our health protocols to allow more patients to be able to recover at home.

This Parliamentary QA was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on January 10, 2022.

Balancing Between Manpower Reserves and Staff Wellbeing

To strike a balance between maintaining sufficient manpower reserves for COVID-19 work and allowing staff to take time off, public healthcare clusters are encouraged to allow staff to rest and recharge by taking days off whenever possible. About two thirds of staff in our public healthcare institutions were able to clear their annual leave. Only less than one-third could not fully clear their accumulated leave in 2021. When there is a need to manage workload during surges, clusters have hired additional manpower and reduced non-urgent and non-life-threatening care treatments. MOH has also worked on measures such as redeploying swabbers who have been freed up after the change in testing protocols to public healthcare institutions, calling for more volunteers to join the SG Healthcare Corps, and tapping on the private healthcare sector.

This ministerial statement was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on November 01, 2021.

The State of our Healthcare Workers

Already, our hospitals are feeling the manpower crunch. Signs of fatigue can be seen amongst our healthcare workers. It has been over 20 months of continuous daily battle against the pandemic. A large proportion of our healthcare workers have not had the opportunity to take leave since 2020, and over 90% of them will not be able to clear their accumulated leave for 2021. This is clearly a much higher proportion compared to the past two years. Our healthcare workers have gone and continue to go way beyond the call of duty to care for their patients. The hospitals are trying to minimise having staff work overtime. For the month of September, our nurses worked for an average of 160 to 175 hours per month.

But this is taking a toll. They are getting tired. They are carrying a burden of care that is sometimes unimaginable. Having to hold a phone for a patient so their family can say their last goodbyes. Holding their patient’s hand, to keep them company, on behalf of the patient’s relatives. They need all the support we can give them.

At MOH, we are redeploying manpower, to serve as healthcare or patient care assistants at our institutions. We are reaching out to more volunteers to join the SG Healthcare Corps and support this important work. We are collaborating with private hospitals to ease some of the load on healthcare workers in our public hospitals. We are stepping up the recruitment of healthcare workers from overseas.

This opening remark was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on October 20, 2021.

Supporting Our Hospitals

MOH is doing whatever we can to support and bolster the hospitals.

• If need be, we will open up more ICU beds, the next leap would be to 300 beds, but that will be at the expense of further degradation of normal service and normal medical care.

• We are beefing up manpower, through redeployment, using former swabbers as patient care and healthcare assistants, tapping on the help of the SG Healthcare Corps, where 2,000 people have signed up and about 800 are ready for deployment.

• Our hospitals and healthcare workers will need the help from the rest of Singapore, to keep caseloads steady, and not overwhelm the system, so that we can continue to do our best to give proper medical care to all patients, COVID-19 and non-COVID.

This press release was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on October 08, 2021.

Continued Efforts to Ramp Up Bed Capacity and Healthcare Manpower

A key resource constraint we now face is our healthcare manpower. Our public healthcare institutions and private healthcare providers have redeployed existing staff and recruited additional short-term manpower to ramp-up beds. We are also bringing in more manpower by reaching out to individuals registered with the Singapore Healthcare Corps, including both healthcare professionals and laypersons. We have also approached nurses who are registered with the Singapore Nursing Board but who are currently not in active practice.

The response has been encouraging. About 900 individuals of all ages have stepped forward in response to our call to duty. We are progressively referring them to the public hospitals to match them with suitable roles, based on the institution’s needs and the individual’s experience and availability. The possible deployments vary across institutions and care settings, and include being deployed to the additional COVID-19 facilities that we have stood up, such as the CTFs.

We thank all who have signed up. Those who are interested can visit go.gov.sg/shc-covidops to contribute to our nation’s fight against COVID-19.

This speech was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on July 02, 2021.

An Adaptable Healthcare Community

To meet with the surge in workload, former pharmacy colleagues came forward and returned to the frontline as part of the Singapore Healthcare Corps, demonstrating immense sense of camaraderie, pride and professionalism.

It should be noted that during this period, many workers without experience in healthcare also stepped forward, assuming roles such as swabbers, and contract tracers. They cannot do the work of nurses or pharmacists, but with proper training and guidance, they discharge their frontline responsibilities admirably, and is an indispensable part of our COVID-19 fighting force.

Through necessity rather than choice, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how a professional community can adapt and transform itself. The same spirit needs to continue in peacetime, when the pandemic subsides, which it will eventually.

This speech was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on March 05, 2021.

Redesigning healthcare jobs and training pathways

COVID-19 has shown us the importance of maintaining a resilient core of healthcare workers. Following the launch of the SG Healthcare Corps (SHC) in April last year, over 5,000 workers and volunteers have been trained, and provided support in areas such as the care of elderly in nursing homes, swab operations, laboratory testing and vaccination operations.

Going forward, we plan to develop the Corps into a platform for citizen engagement and volunteerism in healthcare during peace time, and to serve as a reserve pool in times of crisis.

This opening remark was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on December 14, 2020.

Taking stock of our COVID-19 response

Singapore saw our first imported case on 23 January, and our first cases of local transmission on 4 February.

We stood up our contact tracing teams, expanded our testing capacity, introduced safe distancing measures, and tightened border controls. Despite our best efforts, we saw several clusters of infection, including among migrant workers in the dormitories, and the number of cases rose. At the peak, we saw more than 1,400 new cases a day and that was in April.

We had to mobilise many government agencies including the Singapore Armed Forces and the Home Team, as well as the private sector, and volunteers through the SG Healthcare Corps, to respond quickly to the evolving situation.

This Parliamentary QA was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on October 06, 2020.

Additional resources and hiring for the restructured hospitals

To further supplement our manpower, we hired and trained additional temporary staff, including locums and volunteers through the SG Healthcare Corps. Our healthcare institutions are also ramping up hiring as well as partnering with the aviation sector to take on temporary redeployments into suitable care support and operational roles.

This addendum was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on August 25, 2020.

Continuing the Fight Against COVID-19

We have been able to respond well and adapt quickly to COVID-19 because of our healthcare workers and partners who have led the charge against COVID-19. Their adaptability, resilience, and determination have led to innovations in caring for patients both within the existing healthcare institutions and in in new settings such as the various isolation and recovery facilities. We are grateful to them and the many Singaporeans who have stepped up to volunteer for the SG Healthcare Corps, and contributed their valuable time and skills to augment our manpower needs in many key areas of our COVID-19 defence.

This ministerial statement was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on May 04, 2020.

Supporting Our Healthcare Workers

MOH has also looked to external sources to augment our public healthcare workforce. This includes tapping on healthcare professionals in the private sector and encouraging retired and non-practising staff to return to public practice through the newly launched SG Healthcare Corps. We have expanded the scope to include those without prior healthcare experience, whom we will train to take on supporting roles, such as performing swab procedures and basic care roles. As of 3 May, we received more than 11,000 sign-ups altogether. I am heartened by this overwhelming response from Singaporeans. So far, we have matched about 800 Corps members to various needs on the ground, and they are being progressively deployed, and we will do more. Members of the SG Healthcare Corps will be remunerated for their time and contribution when they are deployed to work alongside our healthcare workers on the ground.

This press release was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on April 28, 2020.

Augmenting our Healthcare Workforce

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has sought the support of healthcare professionals in the private sector, and encouraged them to join the newly launched SG Healthcare Corps. Since its launch on 7 April, about 3,000 healthcare professionals across all job groups have signed up. MOH will be expanding the SG Healthcare Corps to include more healthcare professionals, as well as non-healthcare professionals. We are also re-deploying manpower from industries affected by COVID-19 to enable them to take on new roles in our hospitals. For example, Singapore Airlines (SIA) cabin crew are filling the role of care ambassadors. They provide administrative support and attend to patients, under the supervision of nursing staff.

This feature was first published by NUS Faculty of Science on August 27, 2020.

Chloe was part of the SG Healthcare Corps in fighting COVID-19.

Chloe volunteered with the Health Promotion Board from June to August 2020 as a Swabbing Assistant at Community Recovery facilities.

During this time, she supported COVID-19 efforts by taking biological samples from foreign workers in dormitories and other quarantine facilities in Singapore. She also provided administrative support, including conducting triage and checking clients’ well-being.

Chloe says, “I was glad that my work made a difference in helping to detect cases early and to prevent new clusters from this early detection.”