SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT THE SINGHEALTH NURSES’ DAY CELEBRATIONS 2026, 29 JULY 2026

Mr Cheng Wai Keung, Chairman, SingHealth

Professor Ng Wai Hoe, Group Chief Executive Officer

Ms Paulin Koh, Chief Nursing Officer, MOH

Professor Tracy Carol Ayre, Group Chief Nurse

Ms Wee Wei Ling, Ms Wee Wei Chi, Wee Foundation

Thank you so much for supporting the nurses’ profession.

Friends, nurses, ladies and gentlemen

1.               A very good morning to everyone. This is a happy time of the year for nurses — partly because it is Nurses’ Day; more importantly, July is bonus month.

2.               But importantly, we always have this event. As Minister, I move around the three different healthcare clusters. This year, I am back at SingHealth. But every year without fail, we will attend Nurses’ Day celebrations to honour your work and the impact you are making.

3.               I became Minister in the depths of COVID-19, and I remember my first Nurses’ Day celebration was at SingHealth. That was when I learned about your 90-degree bow. Ivy did it that day.

4.               COVID-19 was a severe test for everybody. Nurses stepped forth. You made a huge impact. Without you, we wouldn't have gone through COVID-19 the way we did. When COVID-19 passed, we celebrated, we honoured.

5.               But now we have an epidemic that is not going to pass. That is ageing. No babies, more and more people growing old. With age come many chronic illnesses and non-communicable diseases. You see them; senior people coming to the hospital with multiple conditions. It’s not like COVID.

6.               And this will get more and more severe as our population gets older and older. So this one will not pass. How are we going to handle it?

7.               And there will be frustrations. There will be pressure. And we are already feeling it. But I say we deal with it together, and we can do it.

8.               The Ministry of Health (MOH) has a role in keeping up capacity and expanding capacity, including building new hospitals, hiring and training more nurses like you, and complementing our workforce with foreign manpower and medical professionals, making sure we have the capacity to deal with this much bigger challenge.

9.               Management has a key role to foster a culture of development, of teamwork and unity. They have to listen to the various voices and feedback from the ground and attend to them as much as possible. Not every problem can be attended to or solved, but I know management will do your best.

10.           And I thought SingHealth does this very well. Nursing started the Build a Better Tomorrow initiative specifically to hear the views of nurses, and I think it is a very good practice.

11.           You also have a psychological safety initiative. It is called SORA. You know about it. It means Speak Up ORAngutan. I don't know why Orangutan. Nobody can answer me, but I think it's a good initiative. If anything, I now remember SORA.

12.           All these initiatives send a very clear message that our nurses deserve to work in an environment where you are respected, protected and supported.

13.           I hope, between MOH and management, our track record speaks for itself. When we feel that your remuneration is not competitive, we review it. When we think we need you to stay with us to develop the next generation, to carry on your professionalism for more years, we implemented the Award for Nurses' Grace, Excellence and Loyalty (ANGEL) scheme. When we feel that there may be signs that the public is not appreciating your work, we said zero tolerance for abuse.

14.           Whatever it is, we try our best to make sure this is a great environment for you to do this important work.

15.           But nurses, you too play a very major part. This does not take “two hands to clap”. This takes three hands: the MOH hand, the management hand, as well as your hand.

16.           Remember, always work as a team. And a team doesn't mean just among nurses. It is amongst the Chief Nurse, amongst management, amongst MOH staff, amongst Ministers, your IT staff — everybody. We must all work as a team. Then I think we can overcome the challenges.

17.           Just yesterday, I gave out 130 or so healthcare scholarships. Many were nurses. At the end of the ceremony, during the reception, I spoke to many of the scholars. I asked them: “why did you decide to join healthcare?” Almost without fail — with the exception of one or two only — they say they were inspired by personal experience.

18.           There is one group who somehow always wanted to be healthcare workers; one group because their parents are healthcare workers. But the rest, the great majority were because of personal experience. Their loved one fell sick, went to hospital, cared for by nurses, and they were so inspired. And to me, that is so powerful because we are usually inspired by people we know — our teachers, our parents.

19.           But in nursing, in healthcare, you are inspired by strangers. Coming to a hospital, and a stranger took care of your loved one, and you feel that this is so inspiring, so impactful that you say, "I want to join nursing."

20.           So I tell this short story that I just encountered yesterday because I thought it just illustrates how impactful your work is and how important your work is.

21.           To every nurse here today in the room and outside the auditorium, thank you for your professionalism, your commitment, and your compassion. You are the heart of our healthcare system and Singapore is grateful for what you do every day.

22.           I wish all of you a very Happy Nurses' Day. Thank you.