Home and Centre-based Care

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong

Non-Constituency MP

Question No. 231

To ask the Minister for Health (a) how many places for home care and centre-based care services for the elderly are there currently; (b) how many referrals for each of these services have been received by the Agency for Integrated Care in 2015; and (c) how many of these referrals have been turned down and what are the main reasons for turning them down.

Oral Answer

1    MOH has been working to expand home and centre-based care capacity to better support our seniors to age-in-place among their family and friends.  We currently have a capacity of 6,900 home care and 3,500 centre-based day care places.  This is an increase of 80% from the 3,800 home care places, and a 67% increase from the 2,100 day care places, in 2011.  We are on track to meet our target of 10,000 home care places and 6,200 day care places by 2020.

2    We have also been working to increase awareness of home and centre-based care so that seniors and their families can consider these services for their care arrangements.  In 2015, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) received home care referrals for about 8,500 seniors, and day care referrals for about 7,800 seniors.

3    AIC does not turn down referrals.  Its role is to facilitate the placement of seniors needing home or community care services or other appropriate aged care services.  Once a referral is received, AIC works with the seniors and their families to find the most appropriate service to meet their needs.  Not all referrals for home or centre-based care services translate into actual take-up for a variety of reasons.  Of the referrals that did not result in services being taken up, about half were because families opted for alternative care arrangements such as hiring a domestic helper.  Another reason for not taking up the service is seniors being readmitted to hospital as their conditions are not stable.