Singapore Quality Institute Symposium 2004

10 Sep 2004

By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts and Health

Venue: The Sheraton Towers

Speech By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister Of State For Information, Communications And The Arts And Health At Singapore Quality Institute Symposium 2004 At The Sheraton Towers, Singapore On 10th September 2004 At 9.00 Am.

Mr Wee Siew Kim, Chairman, Singapore Quality Institute

Distinguished Speakers and Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to join you this morning for the opening of the Singapore Quality Institute Annual Symposium 2004. The theme for this year's symposium is Managing Service Excellence in Asia.

In increasingly competitive markets, service quality, customer loyalty and "positive word of mouth" help you gain and maintain a winning edge. Innovative training is also needed to spur nationally an appreciation of the importance of quality in Singapore manufactured products and services

I am glad that SQI, as a professional body, continues to lead the way to promote and advance excellence in the quality of products and services in Singapore. The Institute is a World Partner of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the world's leading authority on quality.

I understand that the activities of SQI are directed towards achieving improved productivity and profitability through the promotion of Quality Awareness and Quality Assurance. The targeted audience is the entire Quality community and all organisations in the manufacturing and service sectors.

I am glad to see so many of you here this morning, from a broad spectrum of industries such as finance, retailing, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector. Your presence reinforces the importance and interest in realizing service excellence in your respective organization.

We all know, through our own personal experiences, the importance of good customer service and the need to strengthen our links to our customers to understand their changing needs. In so doing, we can improve upon our business results.

I believe that most of you would agree with me that improving service quality is much more than changes to processes and systems. It is also about a mindset change and being committed to meeting the needs of our customers.

In the healthcare sector, our public hospitals and polyclinics strive to provide good, cost-effective and accessible care and services to our patients. One priority is to bring about direct benefits to the patients in terms of lower bills, shorter hospitals stays and better treatment or health management. Our hospitals are good at this. But as our patients and their families become more educated and more sophisticated, we must be in tune with their perceptions. The patients must perceive quality service in the treatment they receive. Recently a patient wrote to me about the service he received:

"That day, I was waiting for almost two hours before I was called in. When I came in, the doctor did not even raise his head.

I asked, "why did I have to wait so long?"

"Too many patients, very busy" His tone was not friendly.

I asked, "Why not engage more doctors?"

"You help us engage." He was not happy.

"It is not good for patients to wait a long time." I said.

"If you don't like, you go see a private doctor, then you don't have to queue up." He was impatient.

Throughout the consultation, he did not inquire after my physical conditions; instead he just read my medical report.

The doctor may have given the correct treatment but the patient certainly did not perceive quality in the service. I don't think the solution is hiring more doctors to do the same quantity of work. That will only increase the cost and the cost will be passed on to the patients. The solution is to improve the perception of the quality in the service. This can be done if there is the correct attitude in the healthcare worker that reflects the human element in services to people. A friendly sympathetic doctor who smiles at his patient and shows concern goes a long way in improving the patient's perception of service. In private clinics, the popular doctors have long queues of patients waiting to see them. The patients are still satisfied with the quality because of the correct attitude and demeanour of these popular doctors.

Our public hospitals and polyclinics are committed to improving patients perceptions of service quality. This means healthcare providers should be listening to patients and their families, communicating with them and providing appropriate and current information, and being empathetic when addressing their concerns and queries. For a patient, quality service comes from doctors who are knowledgeable, friendly, committed and patient-centred.

To achieve this, NHG(National Healthcare Group) has incorporated communication skills training as part of the core training programme for doctors. These are to help equip our MOs, Registrars and other clinical staff with better communication skills.

SingHealth meanwhile has used SMS to improve services. SMS is used to remind a patient of impending appointments. SMS is also used to recall for consultation after registration at SGH, CGH and KKH. This allows patients to attend to other business while waiting their turn to see the doctors. I believe that in your respective areas, too, establishing a service culture and continuous improvement in service delivery are areas of high priority. Most of you would have in place your own customised programmes to provide and sustain a service quality culture.

Let me conclude now by saying that the Symposium is a useful platform for all of us to continually set and refine our ideas and directions on how to better deliver quality service. The world is changing and Singapore is remaking itself. In today's competitive environment, raising service standards involves the all important emphasis on Customer Responsiveness. It calls for strengthening the links to our customers to better understand their changing needs.

It is now my pleasure to open the Symposium. I wish all of you a most fruitful session and every success in your effort in helping your organization achieve service excellence. Thank you.