SPEECH BY DR KOH POH KOON, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND MINISTRY OF MANPOWER, AT THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY DEBATE 2026, ON 5 MARCH 2026

Mr Chairman

            When Minister spoke about our journey towards becoming a super-aged nation, he highlighted something fundamental – that our people are at the heart of healthcare transformation. I will speak on our approach to workforce and care transformation in healthcare, which is carried out via three pillars:

a.    First, we redesign roles and right-site care;

b.    Second, we build pipeline to ensure manpower sustainability; and

c.    Third, we are adopting a flexible and agile healthcare system.

2.            Now, picture this: a patient with diabetes, heart conditions, and mobility challenges juggling multiple appointments across different clinics, each visit requiring time off work – not just for the patient, but for the caregiver sometimes – special transport arrangements, and often, a caregiver's support to accompany them for these visits. This fragmented exercise and experience isn't just inconvenient – it is unsustainable as our population ages and our healthcare needs become more complex.

3.            How can we meet the rising healthcare needs of an aging population, improve the care experience while maintaining the quality and standards of care?

First Pillar – Role-redesign and right-site care

4.            First, we redesign roles and right-site care.

5.            Today in a hospital ward, a patient receives coordinated care through a team led by a principal doctor (PD) who is accountable for the patient’s overall care plan.

a.    Under the new team care model, a PD need not be a specialist.

b.    Once they are trained and assessed to be competent, a Hospital Clinician may take on the role of a PD to supervise, oversee and coordinate care, incorporating the inputs of various healthcare professionals.

c.    Patients need not be seen by different doctors for each condition thus reducing the number of referrals to other specialists during their stay.

d.    Upon discharge, the care of such a patient could then be handed over to their family physician, some of whom are now trained as family medicine specialists to manage patients with more complex medical conditions.

6.            Likewise, team-based care has been introduced in the polyclinics and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) since 2015 and 2018 respectively.

a.    Under such a model, patients with chronic diseases are managed by multi-disciplinary care teams comprising doctors, nurses and care coordinators.

b.    This ensures care continuity and builds the trust between patients and their care team.

7.            In response to Mr Cai Yinzhou’s query on the provision of specialist dental, audiology and podiatry services in the heartlands, we recently enhanced CHAS subsidies for dental care and are expanding dental services at polyclinics and strengthening partnerships with community dental providers – moves that will bring affordable dental care closer to where our seniors live.

8.            Most geriatric dental needs can be managed by polyclinics and CHAS dental clinics. Specialist care is available for more complex conditions at our hospital dental clinics as well as two national specialty dental centres – the National Dental Centre Singapore and the National University Centre for Oral Health.

9.            Additionally, while podiatry services are available at selected polyclinics, foot screening services for patients with diabetes are available at all polyclinics as well as Healthier SG General Practitioners (GPs) through their respective PCNs.

10.         Besides transforming our care team in the hospitals, and right-siting care to the community, we also want to empower our people to take ownership of their health.

a.    We agree with the vision shared by Dr Haresh Singaraju on how social prescription is integral to preventive care, and Healthier SG. That is why the Health Plan in Healthier SG includes encouraging patients to adopt lifestyle changes, more exercise, and less unhealthy food.

b.    However, we acknowledge that social prescription is still not commonly adopted and there are more that we can do together to encourage that. We will work with community partners to make these interventions available to residents.  In particular, for seniors, the network of AACs, Active Ageing Centres, will support them in this. MOS Rahayu has elaborated earlier in her speech. 

c.    In addition, the hospitals also have their respective initiatives in social prescriptions.

11.         I also want to assure Mr Pritam Singh that our public hospitals have in place protocols to expedite urgent cases in the Emergency Department, and urgent referrals from primary care to Specialist Outpatient Clinics. Waiting time alone is not indicative of the quality of medical services. Patients present with varying degrees of severity. And in all the top hospitals of the world, patients with more urgent and severe conditions are up-triaged and seen earlier and given necessary resuscitation. That is how healthcare systems function.

12.         Based on several sources, which the members can also Google, Singapore’s healthcare system is consistently ranked within the top 20. In 2000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) ranked Singapore sixth best in the world. Our public health institutions (PHIs) have also consistently been recognised as being one of the best in the world. In 2026, Newsweek & Statista, a global data platform, ranked SGH 10^th, while NUH and TTSH are also in the top 100.

13.         Singapore’s healthcare system has delivered good health outcomes at an affordable level. Our life expectancy is at about 86 years as reported by the Institute for Metrics and Evaluation, ahead of many other countries such as Japan, Switzerland, Australia, South Korea, UK and USA. On the other hand, our national healthcare expenditure is at 4.4% of our GDP, which is less than half of what other countries spent. This was reported by the World Bank Data in 2019, and you saw earlier from the charts that Minister has shown that indeed we’re able to achieve good health outcomes at a fraction of the cost that other countries have blocked in.

14.         Now, in addition, our hospitals have contingency measures to respond to surge in bed demand.

a.    These include adding beds, expediting clinically appropriate discharges and deferring non-urgent electives to free up acute capacity for incoming patients.

b.    If required, hospitals can also tap on facilities like Transitional Care Facilities and the Mobile Inpatient Care@Home (MIC@Home) to augment overall capacity.

c.    Even as we augment capacity, our people are at the heart of the healthcare system, public healthcare institutions roster staff to ensure adequate rest in between shifts and also monitor wellbeing of our staff as they care for our people. These are experiences we learned also from the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

15.         Greater increased demand in mental health services – the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) will continue to serve as the national centre for psychiatric services and focus on providing quaternary care to patients with more complex mental health needs. Mr Patrick Tay will be pleased to know that MOH has been giving IMH additional funding to:

a.    enhance its psychiatric services and upgrade its infrastructure, for better patient care,

b.    be a leading hub for mental health training and education, and

c.    establish its position in tertiary and quaternary mental health research.

16.         There are also ongoing efforts to enhance psychiatric inpatient, outpatient and crisis care capabilities across public healthcare institutions, to support individuals with both physical and mental health services in the same hospital.

17.         Now, in each of these, care team transformation provides integrated care for patients – promoting team-based care, right-siting of care to the community so that it is more accessible and affordable for our people, and redesigning roles so that professionals are allowed to advance and perform at the apex roles in a safe manner.

Second Pillar – Build pipeline to ensure manpower sustainability

18.         The second pillar is to build a sustainable manpower pipeline.  

19.         Our current healthcare workforce is broadly adequate for the population’s healthcare demand. We will need to grow our healthcare workforce by 20% by 2030 to meet the projected manpower demand.

20.         We are working closely with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to introduce more training pathways to build up a strong local pipeline through Pre-Employment Training (PET).

21.         Mr Cai Yinzhou would be pleased to know that the graduate-entry Master of Science (Audiology) programme at NUS runs biennially and has an average of 13 graduates per cohort.

22.         For podiatrists, demand is being met through scholarships for local talents to pursue podiatry studies overseas and recruitment of overseas-trained podiatrists. 

23.         To Dr Wan Rizal’s query on strengthening the local pipeline of clinical psychologists while maintaining professional standards, we have worked with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) to offer eligible undergraduate students an accelerated pathway to specialise in Clinical Psychology at Master’s level, with the first intake in 2026.  

24.         Unlike the current training model, where an undergraduate needs at least seven years to be qualified as a clinical psychologist, this includes four years for their Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, followed by one or two years of work experience, before enrolling in the two-year Master of Psychology (Clinical) programme, this new accelerated pathway, for undergraduate-to-Masters pathway, can be completed in five years.

a.    It would enable aspiring undergraduates, who set their minds fairly early, to be trained as clinical psychologists through a carefully curated curriculum.

b.    This curriculum comprises didactic learning and clinical training during the undergraduate years, developing practitioners with knowledge and skills  to care for their patients.

c.    Graduates of this five-year programme will receive both a Bachelor’s degree with Honours and a Master’s degree.

25.         NUS’s new accelerated undergraduate-to-Masters pathway will complement existing postgraduate training pipelines, including its existing standalone two-year Master of Psychology (Clinical) programme for those with relevant clinical work experience. Together, these programmes expand our clinical psychologist manpower pipeline to meet increasing mental health needs.

26.         Healthcare workers remain the bedrock of our healthcare system. Even as we create new training pathways, we have implemented strategies to improve retention of our healthcare workers.

27.         We have spoken in this House before about the challenges in attracting and recruiting nurses, especially during the COVID pandemic. While the attrition of our nurses has since fallen back to pre-COVID levels of around 7%, we will continue our efforts to encourage more nurses to stay and contribute to the public healthcare system, as well as to attract aspiring individuals to build a career in this sector.

28.         In 2024, we rolled out the Award for Nurses’ Grace, Excellence, and Loyalty (ANGEL) scheme, and reviewed and adjusted nursing salaries in 2025. In 2025, we have also increased the salaries of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), pharmacists and administrative, ancillary and support staff in public healthcare institutions by up to 7%.

29.         But retention of healthcare workers is not enough to build a robust healthcare system. We need to continuously upskill our healthcare workforce to take on new and expanded roles.

30.         Healthcare today does not fit neatly into traditional silos. A patient with multiple conditions needs professionals who can work seamlessly together.

31.         That is why we are moving from rigid, specialty-focused training to flexible, competency-based learning delivered via stackable modules in a work-study format where possible. This reduces time away from work and impact on patient care.

32.         For our Allied Health Professionals, we are working with our Institutes of Higher Learning to build up shared competencies across relevant allied health training programmes to better support a team-based shared-care model.

a.    these will be rolled out progressively, starting with students who begin their studies from Academic Year 2027 onwards.

b.    Separately for mental health, the shared competencies are outlined under the National Mental Health Competency Training Framework based on patients to create a “common language” among our Allied Health Professionals. 

c.    With this, our Allied Health Professionals will be more versatile and able to work more collaboratively to deliver care holistically.

33.         For nursing, we are working with the polytechnics to redesign existing nursing post-diploma specialty programmes into a work-study format.

a.    This allows the nurses to learn and practise in real world settings as training is based directly on job activities, enabling our nurses to become competent and productive more quickly.

b.    Two Advanced Diploma in Nursing programmes, Palliative Care and Community Health, will be prioritised for initial launch in the work-study format.

34.         With enhanced capabilities, our healthcare workforce is better positioned to deliver comprehensive care.

35.         Ms He Ting Ru has asked for an update on the regulation of mental health professionals. We will be registering five higher risk sub-disciplines of psychologists to ensure high standards of practice, ethics and professional conduct so that our people receive safer and higher quality psychological services. These are

a.    clinical,

b.    clinical neuropsychology,

c.    counselling,

d.    educational and

e.    forensic psychologists.   

36.         MOH and partner Ministries will work with Singapore Psychological Society (SPS) to raise public awareness of the psychologist professions and support our professionals and stakeholders in navigating the registration process. The detailed registration schedule, requirements and roadmaps will be announced by early 2027.

Third Pillar – Flexible and agile healthcare system

37.         The third and last pillar is to develop a flexible and agile healthcare system that can respond to fast-evolving healthcare needs. One example is in mental health.

38.         Mental health concerns came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a key national agenda in the Ministry of Health. Ms He Ting Ru and Mr Alex Yeo asked about this.

39.         Since the launch of the National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy in 2023, we have established the National Mental Health Office in 2024 to coordinate and oversee multi-agency mental health initiatives.

a.    First, we have guided mental health service providers to adopt the Tiered Care Model and improve care coordination across different providers, enabling clients to receive seamless care at the most appropriate care setting.

b.    Second, we have expanded the capacity of mental health services across the primary, community, acute and long-term care sectors.

            i.    Polyclinics and GPs are equipped to provide care to individuals with mild to moderate mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

            ii.    Community mental health teams provide a range of mental health support to individuals with mental health needs. Today, we have 71 Community Outreach Teams (CREST) and 26 Community Intervention Teams (COMIT) to conduct outreach, screening and assessment, psychosocial intervention and service linkages for seniors with mental health needs or dementia and their caregivers.

            iii.    By 2030, we will expand the number of CREST and COMIT to 75 and 35 respectively.

            iv.    We have also established the First Stop for Mental Health services to facilitate easy access and navigation of mental health services.

c.    Third, we expanded support in encouraging help-seeking amongst youths.

            i.    Youths can access CREST-Youth and CHAT, which are sited in the community.

            ii.    Those who need psychosocial interventions may then be referred to the Youth Integrated Teams.

            iii.    The recently launched “grovve” - spelled g-r-o-v-v-e - at *Scape also provides mental health services to youths where they gather, to improve access and reduce barriers and stigma.

            iv.    Youth-oriented self-help services such as Let’s Talk and Ask-a-Therapist can also be accessed on mindline.sg.

d.    In addition to these services, an ecosystem of support is available within the education system.

            i.    Educators and staff are trained to look out for signs of distress in students, and refer those who require further support to counsellors in schools or IHLs, as well as community mental health professionals.

            ii.    Peer support structures are in place for students to look out for one another and encourage distressed peers to seek help from trusted adults.

            iii.    Youths are also taught ways to build mental wellness and resilience through the Character and Citizenship Education curriculum in schools and mental well-being programmes in the IHLs.

e.    Fourth, we are enhancing capabilities of community service providers through the National Mental Health Competency Training Framework, and have trained over 160,000 frontline personnel and volunteers to identify and guide individuals in mental distress to support avenues.

f.     Fifth, we have promoted mental health and well-being through educational efforts for the general public, parents and youths through campaigns such as Beyond the Label, and resources like Parenting for Wellness and the Positive Use Guide.

g.    Lastly, we have strengthened workplace mental health support in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower and Workplace Safety and Health Council. The Well-Being Champions Network has grown from 54 founding member organisations to 800 over the last two years.

40.         Now, as mental health is a complex and multifaceted issue, we continue to work with various agencies to track and monitor medium to long-term trends, including overall state of mental health and well-being of our population, for evidence of improvements from the baseline.

41.         Adopting a “no wrong door” approach to facilitate access to services and right-siting care in primary and community settings encourage individuals to seek help early in non-stigmatising environments, while avoiding over-medicalising mental health needs.

42.         We also hear Mr Eric Chua’s concern about our people paying for the silent addiction to explicit materials. On this, we recognise that addiction extends beyond individual health to affect families and the broader society; individuals may also face underlying difficulties such as financial hardship and lack of social support.

43.         The National Addiction Management Service (NAMS), situated within IMH, was established to provide treatment and assistance for individuals seeking help for addictions.

44.         NAMS specialises in addiction medicine research that includes intoxicating substance use and emerging areas of concern such as internet and gaming.

45.         MOH, together with MSF and NCSS, and other stakeholders across sectors, will continue to develop and enhance access to addictions services in the community.

Conclusion

46.         Sir, healthcare is highly dynamic and fluid, compounded by shifting patient demographics and needs.

47.         As we navigate the road ahead and future challenges together, these three pillars will work in tandem to strengthen the core foundation of our healthcare system.

48.         We are not just filling positions – we are building a sustainable workforce and system that can adapt, collaborate, and deliver good quality care to all Singaporeans.

49.         Thank you, Sir.