Healthcare Professionals Training and COVID-19 Vaccine Overdose

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1384

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 3 OCTOBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Joan Pereira

MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC

Question No. 3446

To ask the Minister for Health what measures are taken to ensure that doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who work part-time or as locum on a freelance basis are kept up to date on the latest developments in healthcare and are adequately trained and familiarised with clinical practices.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1390

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 3 October 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Dr Wan Rizal

MP for Jalan Besar GRC

Question No. 3491

To ask the Minister for Health in light of the recent report regarding the administering of undiluted COVID-19 vaccines, what are the safeguards in place to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1392

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 4 October 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song

MP for Aljunied GRC

Question No. 3522

To ask the Minister for Health (a) when will the result of the investigation into the overdose of the COVID-19 vaccines administered at the ProHealth Medical Group’s Hougang clinic be made public; (b) what is the maximum duration of hospitalisation for any patient that has been hospitalised in Singapore as a result of an overdose of a COVID-19 vaccine; and (c) what further safeguards will be put in place to avoid a further repetition of such incidents.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1396

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 4 October 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song

MP for Aljunied GRC

Question No. 3541

To ask the Minister for Health (a) how many overdoses and underdoses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to patients respectively since the start of the vaccination programme; (b) whether clinics are required to immediately report each incident as they occur to (i) the Ministry and (ii) the affected patients; (c) how many patients have been affected by these incidents; and (d) of these, how many were children.

Answer

Mr Speaker, may I please have your permission to answer PQs 10 and 11 on today’s Order Paper?

Sir, my response will also cover matters raised in the questions filed by Mr Gerald Giam, scheduled for a subsequent sitting on 4 October, specifically questions 3522 and 3541. I invite the Member to seek clarifications today and consider withdrawing the question if it is adequately answered.

Sir, there are professional and statutory requirements for the provision of healthcare. All healthcare professionals are expected to be competent in providing safe and good quality care. Licensees of healthcare institutions also bear responsibility to ensure that their staff, including part-timers or locums, are properly on-boarded and adequately trained to perform the tasks that they are assigned, through establishing appropriate protocols and processes.

Professional Boards require that all registered healthcare professionals keep up to date on current standards of care and treatment, and participate in Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programmes or activities to renew their Practising Certificates. CPE consists of educational activities that serve to maintain or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance of healthcare professionals.

All COVID-19 vaccination providers under the National Vaccination Programme (NVP) are licensed and regulated by the Ministry of Health (MOH). Specifically, for COVID-19 vaccination, we issued additional regulations to stipulate the prevailing eligibility criteria, the dilution and administration of the recommended dosage for each vaccine, the management of emergencies and incident reporting. Vaccination providers are expected to assess their staff competencies in COVID-19 vaccination administration.

In the event of any vaccine administration errors and medical emergencies following vaccination, the vaccination providers are required to report to MOH no later than three hours after the incident. The providers are also required to inform patients immediately when a vaccination error has occurred, provide appropriate immediate care, and then monitor the patients’ health with daily calls for the next seven days to ensure their well-being.

In the event of an error, MOH will investigate. If there are any systemic issues, we will work with the providers to review and improve their work processes.

MOH is currently investigating the ProHealth Medical Group about the incident on 15 September and will take appropriate enforcement actions if there are any regulatory breaches.

As of 26 September 2022, out of approximately 16 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered, there had been 11 persons affected by overdosing, and 119 persons affected by underdosing of the vaccinations. Of these, seven were children aged between five to 11 years old who did not have any adverse reactions. The adults had either no adverse reactions or recovered uneventfully.