Strong Support for the Proposed Allied Health Professions Bill

28 Oct 2010

The majority of respondents gave the thumbs-up to the proposed Allied Health Professions (AHP) Bill.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) received 270 responses from the public and allied health professional associations in its public consultation from 9 September 2010 to 07 October 2010. The proposed AHP Bill seeks to provide a systematic framework for the regulation of the allied health professions. It includes provisions to establish the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC), implementation of a registration framework, prohibition of misrepresentation of the allied health professions and establishment of a system for complaints management and discipline.

Almost all (98%) agreed that there should be legislation to regulate the Allied Health Professions. Many were also supportive of the specific provisions to ensure higher professional standards and practice.

A summary of the views received are as follows:

i) 88% agreed that the proposed umbrella regulatory body, the Allied Health Professions Council, to regulate the wide range of allied health professions, is a more efficient approach.

ii) 83% agreed that the registration of allied health professionals should be differentiated into Full Registration, Restricted Registration, Conditional Registration and Temporary Registration.

iii) 84% agreed that all allied health professionals who are already practising in Singapore at this time should be registered either with full, restricted or conditional registration to enable them to continue their current practice.

iv) 84% agreed that it is adequate to restrict the use of professional titles to registered Allied Health professionals to protect the interest of the public.

v) 75% felt that a non-registered person should be stopped from practising the profession.

vi) 70% felt that MOH should license the premises where Allied Health Professionals work in.

vii) 96% agreed that the complaints and disciplinary processes and procedures set out in the Bill will enable the Council to act effectively against errant Allied Health professionals.

A minority were of the view that one governing body would not effectively manage and account for the diversity amongst the various groups of allied health professions. They expressed concerns about adequate and equal representation of the various professions for fair and effective regulation. Some opined that local professions are too small or young and hence lacked expertise to support formal regulation. MOH will address these concerns during implementation. 

MOH would like to thank all respondents for their feedback via e-mails, post, the e-consultation and REACH portals. MOH will carefully consider the feedback received in refining the Bill.

More details of the survey, including MOH’s responses to the key issues raised are summarised in Annex A (Summary of E-survey Responses) and Annex B (Key Issues and MOH’s response).

• Annex A (Summary of E-survey Responses) (20 KB) 

• Annex B (Key Issues and MOH’s response) (36 KB)