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SINGAPORE, Oct. 6 (PTI) One of the major challenges facing Singapore is finding enough foreign nurses to supplement local nurses to care for the elderly, as the healthcare system will need 24,000 nurses by 2030, according to media reports.
“They (nurses and medical staff) are now 58,000 and the Ministry of Health estimates that they need to increase to 82,000 by 2030,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told parliament on Wednesday.
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Singaporeans and Permanent Residents make up about 72% and 63% of registered nurses in Singapore.
The rest are from the Philippines, Malaysia, China, India, Myanmar and other countries, The Straits Times reported.
Acknowledging increased competition for international nurses, Ong added that the ministry supported the proposal to nominate MP and breast surgeon Tan Yia Swam to grant permanent residency to those who perform well.
He also noted that by 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above, compared to one in six today. Singapore is increasing the capacity of nursing home beds from 16,200 now to 31,000 by 2030.
“In our Asian culture, we value caring for the elderly at home. Our elderly also prefer to age in a familiar environment. We should not lose that,” Ong was quoted in Parliament by The Straits Times.
“As a society, we must be wary of the assumption that the elderly are always sick and weak, unable to take care of themselves,” Wang said.
Responding to questions from several MPs about manpower, the minister said there was no exodus of local nurses and efforts were being made to increase the enrolment of local nursing students to 2,300 from the current 2,100.
While locals will continue to make up the majority of the nursing workforce, the number and role of foreign nurses will increase.
“If we want to take care of our elderly and sick, if we want to reduce the workload of medical staff, we must expect foreign medical staff to play a bigger role in the coming years,” Wang said.
“This is especially true in areas facing greater manpower shortages, such as aged care or palliative care,” he said.
Ong also pointed to the high attrition rate of foreign nurses, which rose from the usual 8.9 per cent to 14.8 per cent last year.
This is mainly due to the increased global demand for nurses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ong added that foreign nurses in Singapore were being poached by other countries such as New Zealand and the UK.
In his closing remarks at Parliament’s debate on the Healthier Singapore (Singapore) white paper, Ong highlighted the need to prepare for a rapidly ageing population from a healthcare perspective, as well as the urgency of attracting foreign nurses.
Senior Minister of State for Health Dr Janil Puthucheary told the House of Representatives that Singapore is working to increase the number of its family doctors to meet its target of 3,500 by 2030. Overall, about 200 Singaporean doctors trained overseas return home each year, he added. .
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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