Measures to Enhance Attractiveness and Career Prospects in Intermediate and Long-term Care Sector

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) what are the working hours and salaries of nurses in the intermediate and long-term care (ILTC) sector as compared to nurses in the public healthcare sector; and (b) what measures will be taken to enhance the attractiveness and career prospects in the ILTC sector to encourage more Singaporeans to join.

Nurses in the ILTC sector, also known as the community care sector, have different job requirements including working hours, compared to public healthcare sector nurses. MOH works closely with the Agency for Integrated Care and Community Care Organisations (CCOs) to ensure that salaries of staff in the sector remain competitive. In 2020, we provided funding to CCOs to raise the salaries of local nurses and support care staff. Earlier this year, we announced further funding support for salaries and expanded the support to more job groups, such as allied health professionals, pharmacists, administrative and ancillary staff.

Over the years, we have also strengthened various recruitment and workforce development support for the community care sector. We embarked on a pilot to redesign support care jobs within the sector to enhance career progression for these staff. The CCOs can also tap on funding support from the Ministry to hire and train new staff. We have also introduced scholarships, traineeship programmes and training subsidies for the sector to attract talent and develop the workforce. We are embarking on a Care to Go Beyond public communications campaign to raise awareness of the job opportunities in the sector.