Debated in Parliament on 4 Apr 2022.
Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Health in the last six months, what is the number of weeks that medical staff have been rostered for extra duties, broken down by (i) senior doctors, (ii) junior doctors, (iii) nursing staff and (iv) other allied healthcare professionals.
In any given week, even before COVID-19, there will be some healthcare workers who are rostered for extra duties, for example, to cover for colleagues who are sick or on vacation leave.
During the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis, the pressure on our healthcare workers has increased tremendously. This was especially so over the last few months because, due to the Omicron variant, all our healthcare workers had put in an exceptional amount of extra effort and hours to take care of patients and keep our healthcare system running.
MOH does not track such data as these are operational arrangements by the healthcare clusters and involve exigencies of service. As we now turn the corner from the current wave of COVID-19, our public healthcare clusters will do our best to allow staff the opportunity to rest and recharge and take vacation days and annual leave whenever possible.
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