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Ministry of Health
Speeches

SPEECH BY PROFESSOR KENNETH MAK, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF HEALTH, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT THE CITIZEN LIFE SAVING SUMMIT

9 November 2026

Professor Marcus Ong and Dr Jacqueline Situ, Co-chairs of the Citizen Life Saving Summit

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen


1.             A very good morning to all of you. It is my pleasure to join you here today on the first day of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Asia 2026, at this Citizen Life Saving Summit. To our participants from across Asia and beyond, welcome to Singapore.

2.             This Summit brings together diverse stakeholders to strengthen medical emergency preparedness. Each of you has a very important role in advancing this shared goal. Medical emergencies such as stroke, trauma, and heart attacks are time-critical conditions where prompt interventions can make a life-saving difference. As many medical emergencies occur outside healthcare settings, members of the public, including trained community responders, play a very crucial role in early assistance.


Building a Community Ready to Respond

3.             Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), can mean the difference between life and death when out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur. In Singapore, as Marcus has shown, encouraging progress has been made to improve survival outcomes. From 2011 to 2022, our bystander CPR rates increased from about 22% to 62%, and the use of AEDs has increased from 1.8% to 14%. So that is not a small number. I mean, it is significant, but there is so much more we can do.

4.             This progress did not happen by chance. Singapore’s community preparedness has been steadily built up through teaching CPR and AED skills in schools, during National Service and at various workplaces. For example, secondary school students learn CPR and use the AED as part of the Physical Education curriculum. These various efforts are reinforced by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Responders Plus Programme. This equips members of the public with CPR, AED, as well as basic first aid and firefighting skills.

5.             There are other examples of how the community is equipped with CPR and AED skills. Team Nila is Singapore’s sports volunteer movement, and SportSG has partnered with the Singapore Heart Foundation to train Team Nila volunteers in both CPR and AED skills. Since 2024, about 500 volunteers have been trained. The Ministry of Manpower’s Assurance, Care and Engagement Group (ACE Group) has also partnered with the Singapore Heart Foundation, Singapore Red Cross and dormitory operators. They have equipped more than 7,000 migrant workers with CPR and AED skills since 2021. Through these efforts, the community builds knowledge progressively, and also at the same time builds the confidence to step forward during a cardiac arrest.

6.             Other than training, responders must be able to access AEDs quickly. Under the Save-a-Life initiative and the AED-on-Wheels Programme, the SCDF and the Singapore Heart Foundation have installed AEDs at HDB lift lobbies and in buses that travel through areas with a lesser reach to AEDs.

7.             These efforts are complemented by SCDF’s myResponder mobile application, which Marcus has shared, which alerts responders to nearby OHCA incidents and directs them to the nearest AED. Since its launch in 2015, more than 280,000 people have registered as Community First Responders (CFRs). As at the end of August 2026, we have had 198 cardiac arrest patients who were saved by CFRs in the community. This is heartening progress. I hope more people will join this growing pool of responders.

8.             Even so, with so much progress, there is so much more that we can do. Singapore has more than 10,000 publicly accessible AEDs, but AEDs were only used in 14% of cases in 2022. There is so much room to increase their use by encouraging more people to be trained and ready to respond.

9.             While these efforts reflect Singapore’s experience, there is much we can learn from each other. We look forward to sharing experiences and learning from one another. This sharing of experiences strengthens our collective efforts to improve community response to medical emergencies.


Closing

10.          In closing, let me thank the Section of EMS Physicians (SEMSP), as the main organiser of the Summit, together with the co-organisers and all the supporting partners who have made this event possible. And I wish all of you a productive, insightful and educational Summit. Thank you very much.