Speech by Minister (Health) at Agency for Integrated Care's HMDP-ILTC awards ceremony

18 Aug 2011

By Gan Kim Yong

Introduction

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to join you at the second HMDP-ILTC award ceremony organised by AIC. It is certainly an honour to be here today to recognise healthcare professionals who are committed to excelling in their fields.

Impetus

2.     Let me start by thanking everyone working in the intermediate and long-term care (ILTC) sector for your contributions. Whether you are a skilled professional or a support staff, you can be proud of the fact that you are making a meaningful contribution to an increasingly important sector in Singapore’s healthcare landscape. I would also want to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to the employers – the VWOs who are present here today, for your contributions to the community and for supporting your staff as they continue to enhance their skills.

3.     Our population is ageing rapidly. You have heard PM Lee’s National Day Rally speech a few days ago where he spoke about the Government’s focus on the healthcare concerns of seniors and our commitment to addressing these issues. While we strive to keep our seniors healthy and active for as long as possible, the reality is that the demand for good and affordable healthcare to continue to rise. Many will need care in their senior years. Some will need rehabilitation and long term care at home and in the community. There will be some who will require institutional care such as nursing homes.

4.     The government will do more to support the elderly for them to age gracefully and receive the care they need. We are working with other agencies such as MCYS to coordinate and provide more health and social care facilities and services in the community, and to build a network of support for caregivers and family members.

5.     With the expansion of facilities and services, we will also need to ensure sufficient numbers of professional and support staff to deliver these services. We will need an ILTC workforce that is competent, committed and compassionate.

6.     Most of you here today are intimately aware of the challenges of working in this sector. It is not an easy sector to work in and there are many demands and competing priorities. But I’m certain that there is a great sense of satisfaction from helping patients to walk again and to regain their independence, as well as in helping families adjust to the challenging task of caring for their loved ones.

Greater Attention to Manpower Development for ILTC

7.     To meet growing demands and expectations from Singaporeans for higher standards of care, the ILTC sector has to build up both capacity and capability. While our community hospitals are expanding their role to take on more complex cases, we are also looking at how nursing homes can help patients with rehabilitative potential get well enough to make the transition home and be with their families.

8.     In all of this, manpower is a critical factor. We need a base of well-qualified, professional healthcare workers in order to deliver quality care. To do so, we will need more Geriatricians, Rehab Physicians, Advanced Practice Nurses, Nurse Managers, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Speech Therapists. We need greater investment in ILTC manpower – to attract, motivate and retain qualified healthcare professionals, based on a solid employee value proposition, and the ability to offer them a sense of meaning and contribution in the work they do.

9.     Building up manpower capability requires a long lead time and heavy investment. The Government is therefore committed to give support to the ILTC sector, to invest in the training pipeline for ILTC professionals and to help providers with the attraction and retention of healthcare workers.

10.     HMDP-ILTC provides support for locals to undergo advanced training. MOH is currently looking at how we can further enhance training opportunities in the ILTC sector, for example by increasing financial support for training to enable locals at every level to upgrade to jobs of higher skills.

11.     We are also studying whether we can extend training support for short courses such as infection control, and specific courses useful for the ILTC sector, such as managing dementia patients and care of the elderly, to the entire ILTC workforce, regardless of whether they are local or foreign. This will help us improve the skills level and knowledge of the sector as a whole. And in turn raise the productivity of the entire sector and provide better care for Singaporeans. While the Government can help, ILTC providers must also continue to do their part and invest in the training, upgrading and the long-term retention of their people.

12.     We acknowledge that the ILTC sector faces multiple challenges. Not all of them can be addressed easily by the Government and certainly not all in my speech today. We will need to continue working with you on these challenges. For today, I will just focus on two areas: (a) enhancing skills and professionalism; and (b) recruitment and deployment.

Enhancing Skills & Professionalism

13.     We want to promote continual upgrading of knowledge and skills across the ILTC workforce, so that they are better equipped to care for patients with chronic diseases and complex conditions. We must also continue to enhance the professionalism of the sector to improve standards of care and make the jobs more attractive to Singaporeans.

14.     The HMDP-ILTC programme aims to fulfill this very goal. With the help of HMDP-ILTC, more ILTC healthcare professionals will be able to upgrade themselves through local or overseas training. I want to share the stories of two professionals – Ms Tilda Teo, a senior physiotherapist from St Andrew’s Community Hospital, and Ms Kahvidah, from HCA Hospice Care.

15.     Ms Teo was a recipient of the HMDP-ILTC Fellowship scheme in 2008. She decided to pursue further studies in physiotherapy in Hong Kong, where she also learnt that Tai Chi can help to improve a stroke-patient’s sense of balance. Since then, she has been using different Tai Chi stances to help improve the stability of her stroke patients. She was able to combine her personal experience and interest with the opportunity afforded by the HMDP scheme to bring about greater benefit to her patients.

16.     Ms Kahvidah, who is currently a Satellite Nurse Manager in HCA Hospice Care, is one of our recipients today. With the HMDP-ILTC Fellowship, she will be pursuing a full-time Master of Nursing at NUS. When she completes the two year programme, she will be the first nurse from the ILTC sector to be qualified as an Advanced Practice Nurse. This is exciting for both Ms Kahvidah and her employer, as this means she will be well-equipped to take on more challenging clinical work and will be able to take on leadership roles in her organisation.

17.     Ms Teo and Ms Kahvidah show that there is indeed value from the investment in continuous training, and I hope there will be many more therapists and nurses like them, who come forward to upgrade themselves and do more for their patients. The government is committed to supporting you by investing more in skills upgrading for the ILTC sector. Since 2002, the government has invested close to $9 million in this training programme to upgrade and hone the skills of over 400 ILTC professionals.

18.     AIC has also set up the Learning Institute, which serves as a node to facilitate training specific to the needs of the ILTC sector. The courses offered range from building up clinical skills, for example, in the area of palliative care, to leadership and management courses.

Career Development for Healthcare Professionals in the ILTC Sector

19.     We recognise that one of the challenges facing the ILTC sector is attracting and retaining good healthcare professionals and offering them an attractive career pathway. For some of our smaller ILTC providers, it is sometimes difficult to provide their employees with the requisite resources and opportunities to expand their professional careers.

20.     This is where we can come in and help support the ILTC sector. We have been looking at how we can develop a scheme that will provide structured career development pathways across the sector, complemented with professional training and career exposure opportunities. Healthcare professionals employed under this scheme can also be deployed to work across a number of ILTC organisations, and in the restructured hospitals, to gain work experience and help transfer knowledge across the various care settings.

21.     MOH will therefore be piloting a central employment scheme known as Career Resourcing and Development of Allied Health Talents or CREATE, to help the ILTC sector in the recruitment and retention of staff. This will provide an additional source of trained staff for ILTC organisations who wish to tap on it and another option for healthcare professionals to explore work opportunities in the ILTC sector. We will start off the scheme with allied health professionals (‘AHPs’), before looking at extending it to other healthcare professionals in the future.

22.     Under CREATE, MOH will hire a group of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists, who will in turn be deployed to the ILTC sector and the restructured hospitals. This will help ensure a steady flow of AHPs to the ILTC sector. CREATE therapists can also look forward to professional management of their careers and development.

Closing

23.     I hope the CREATE scheme will play a role in boosting the capabilities of the ILTC sector. But ultimately, the critical success factor is the committed, compassionate and competent people who come forward despite the challenges to care for patients in this sector, day after day.

24.     My warmest congratulations to all of today’s recipients and I wish you all the best in your efforts.