Opening Address by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Health, at the opening plenary of the 4th Singapore Rehabilitation Conference 2015, 26 March 2015

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

1    Thank you for inviting me to the 4^th Singapore Rehabilitation Conference. I am sorry I am not able to join you today. This is a sad week for Singapore, as we mourn the painful loss of our Founding Father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Mr Lee has taught us that as a small nation, nobody owes us a living, but with sheer hard work and determination to excel, we will not just survive, but succeed exceptionally well. The best way to pay tribute to Mr Lee therefore, is for Singaporeans to come together as a people, and to strive together to bring Singapore to the next level of excellence.

2    The conference today reflects our pursuit for innovation and excellence in the delivery of healthcare, as the needs of our people evolve. The theme today is “Towards Enablement and Empowerment – Innovative Care Models for Asia”. It aptly describes the need for continued innovation in rehabilitation services so that we can better enable and empower persons with functional impairments or disabilities to lead meaningful and independent lives.

Delivering Care, Enhancing Accessibility

3    Indeed, like many other nations in the world, Singapore is facing an ageing population. The Ministry of Health (MOH) has drawn up the Healthcare 2020 Master Plan to ensure accessibility, quality, and affordability of healthcare to support the needs of our ageing population. Our seniors are living longer today because of advances in healthcare and while many are healthy, some of them do live with impairments and chronic conditions and thus require support and care. Our healthcare system should help our seniors to remain functional and independent for as long as they can and support those with impairments and chronic conditions.

4    To this end, robust rehabilitation and functional recovery from illness have become increasingly integral in the journey of care for our elderly patients.

5    In anticipation of an increase in rehabilitation needs with ageing, MOH is strengthening rehabilitation care in several ways. We have been adding day centres and home rehabilitation capacity. We are also adding capacity in community hospitals. The new Changi General Hospital-St Andrews Community Hospital Integrated Building (CGH-SACH IB) which opened in December last year, operates mock-ups of common living and family areas in each ward, so that patients recovering from illnesses can undergo rehabilitation training relevant to the tasks they would be performing in a home environment. We are also building four new community hospitals by 2020, to better serve the needs of our residents. This will double the current number of community hospital beds. In addition, we have plans to put in place at least 120 more day rehabilitation places over the next year, and to achieve 1800 day rehabilitation places in total in 2020.

6    To ensure that rehabilitation continues to be accessible to as many seniors as possible, we need to put in place a supportive environment. For example, some elderly may not follow up with rehab due to lack of affordable transport to day rehab. So this year, my Ministry has improved the transport subsidies under the Seniors Mobility Fund. We are also piloting tele-rehab which can further enhance the access of patients to rehab services, without even needing to leave home. This will help patients and their caregivers save time, making it easier to stay on track for their rehab needs.

7    In addition, we are improving the quality of rehabilitation care by making them more patient-centric. At the acute hospital setting, the rehabilitation professionals are involved in patient care much earlier. For example, Integrated Care Pathways for hip fracture mean more elderly patients with hip fractures are being operated on either on the day itself, or the next day, and rehabilitation starts from Day 1 post-op. These early assessments and therapies enable customisation of the therapies to patient’s clinical condition and thus maximise functional recovery and shorten length of hospitalisation stay. MOH is also working with our partners to better integrate the rehabilitation services in the hospitals with those in the community as they return to the community (e.g. Day Rehab Centres), so as to improve patient outcomes.

8    The government has taken steps to make rehabilitation services more affordable. We raised subsidies for intermediate and long term care (ILTC) in 2012 in line with our objective to make quality healthcare more affordable. We also introduced subsidies for home rehab last year. Since subsidies started from 1 April 2014, some 370 patients have benefited as at the end of 2014.

9    In addition to increasing capacity and managing the costs of care, we are expanding manpower with the right skills to care for patients. Between 2010 and 2014, the number of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists in the public healthcare and ILTC sectors has grown by about 40% to more than 1,200 today. The Singapore Institute of Technology will launch four year degree programmes in physiotherapy and occupational therapy from September 2016. The new programmes will provide for a deeper and more seamless integration between knowledge and skills for practice. We will continue to review the manpower demand and supply regularly, and build up the local training pipelines. In addition, since 2010, the Institute of Technical Education has introduced the Nitec in Community Care and Social Services course where rehabilitation therapy support is a key focus area. We have also worked with some home and community care providers to redesign jobs and attract Singaporeans to join this meaningful sector as senior care associates.

10    We need to continually train and retain our healthcare professionals and enable meaningful learning and exchange opportunities. Today’s conference is one such platform, and I am delighted to see the wide representation of participants across the sectors in this conference.

Delivering Care, Encouraging Innovation

11    This year's programme also highlights the innovative aspect in Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine including the use of technology as accelerator of rehabilitation efficiency. I understand that many innovators will share their work in this Conference. Ms Sarah Yong, Manager, Specialized Assistive Technology Centre, SPD, Singapore, will speak on assistive technology for persons with disabilities; and Dr Miao Chunyan, Associate Professor & Director of Emerging Research Lab, School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, will be speaking on innovating physio-cognitive games for the elderly and chronically disabled. I hope we will all learn from them, as well as others, so that together, as a healthcare system, we can improve our care and assist our patients in their rehabilitation and recovery journey.

Conclusion

12    On this closing note, I would like to commend the organising committee for offering the opportunity to all participants to share experiences and build capabilities together. I wish everyone a fulfilling conference.