Debated in Parliament on 8 Nov 2022.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry will consider making permanent the role of Care Ambassadors in our healthcare institutions that was 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.
This response will also address the question filed by Mr Louis Ng which is scheduled for the Sitting on 9 November 2022. [Please refer to "Government Expenditure in Support of Hospitals' Care Ambassador Positions Filled by Aviation Flight Crew", Official Report, 9 November 2022, Vol 95, Issue 75, Written Answers to Questions for Oral Answer not Answered by End of Question Time section.]
Aviation crews 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 the Ministry of Health (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 the 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.
PAPERCUTS