Speech by Minister for Health Mr Gan Kim Yong at the MOH Appreciation Dinner, Tuesday 6 November 2012

Colleagues and friends from MOH and the Public Healthcare Family

A very good evening to all of you and welcome to the MOH Appreciation Dinner.

2          It gives me great pleasure to join you tonight to recognize and celebrate the contributions of our friends of MOH to help us build better healthcare system for Singapore.

3          Your contributions and commitment in working with us have been immensely critical in helping Singaporeans live well and live long through promoting healthy lifestyles and by providing high quality healthcare services that are accessible and affordable when needed. With your diverse backgrounds, you bring with you additional depth of experience and expertise to enhance our healthcare system. You serve on 42 committees in the Ministry and our affiliated institutions, advising us on clinical matters, developing and raising professional and public health standards, and promoting good health, among others.  On top of sharing your expertise with us, you are also an important link between the Ministry and the community. You help us to engage and convey our initiatives to the community. You also help us to develop good, sound policies that ensure good, affordable healthcare for all. Your dedication has been instrumental in the development and implementation of our healthcare plans.

4          We thank you for your generosity with your time and efforts. Thank you for walking with us through the years, and for being part of our healthcare family. 

5          Moving forward, we will need to do more to ensure that all Singaporeans continue to enjoy quality care when they need it. We announced the Healthcare 2020 masterplan this year to address accessibility, quality and affordability of healthcare. There are many challenges ahead of us. We need to build capacity to ensure we can meet the needs of an ageing population. However, even as we increase our capacity, we have to ensure that the quality of our healthcare services is not compromised. At the same time, we have to ensure healthcare services remain affordable despite rising costs, and give Singaporeans greater peace of mind. We will be doubling the Government’s healthcare expenditure over the next five years. More importantly, we need the community to work together with us as we to continue to improve and refine our healthcare system to achieve the best outcomes now, and also for the future.  We will also continue to engage Singaporeans to raise awareness on healthcare issues and policies, and to seek feedback on how we can do better

6          I look forward to your continued support and partnership as we work together to build on our good quality, accessible and affordable healthcare system, to add more years of healthy life for fellow Singaporeans. I wish all of you many more years of enjoyable and meaningful contributions to the healthcare sector.

7          Thank you once again for your passion, commitment and hard work. May I invite my colleagues in MOH to please join me in applauding our friends seated with us tonight.

            Thank you and I wish you all an enjoyable evening.