Vacancies at Healthcare Institutions Created by Employees Returning to Aviation Sector

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1491

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 8 NOVEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang

MP for Nee Soon GRC

Question No. 3696

To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry will consider making permanent the role of Care Ambassadors in our healthcare institutions that is previously filled by aviation crew from the Singapore Airlines Group; (b) whether the 900 or so vacancies left by the departure of these crew members has been filled and, if so, how has the Ministry facilitated the filling of these vacancies; and (c) if not, why not.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1491

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 9 NOVEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang

MP for Nee Soon GRC

Question No. 3697

To ask the Minister for Health (a) what is the amount of Government expenditure each year to support the Care Ambassador positions filled by the Singapore Airlines Group; and (b) what are the sources of funds used.

Written Answer

Aviation crew were temporarily redeployed to augment healthcare manpower as Care Ambassadors amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government had supported up to 90% of the salaries of the redeployed aviation crew at about $16 million in total. This was funded through the Jobs Support Scheme, Aviation Workforce Retention Grant, and direct funding from MOH.

To leverage their experience in service excellence, a unique combination of tasks was put together for the Care Ambassadors. Hence, the Care Ambassadors took up tasks in administration, service operations and support care, such as assisting patients with activities of daily living.

The Care Ambassadors provided a short-term manpower boost to allow our nurses and other healthcare staff to focus on more complex clinical and care-related work at the height of COVID-19 pandemic. We greatly appreciate the 900 aviation crew who stepped forward at various points in time across the past two years to support our healthcare workers. We are happy that most of them have since returned to resume their careers in the aviation sector.

It is worthwhile making these roles permanent through job redesign. In fact, the admin and support care tasks performed by the aviation crew are performed by existing healthcare staff such as Patient Service Associates and Patient Care Assistants, but there is a limit to how many we can recruit. MOH is thus working with the public healthcare institutions to further redesign healthcare support roles, including blending clinical support, administrative and operations responsibilities on a more permanent basis.