Debated in Parliament on 24 Feb 2021.
Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health at public healthcare institutions in each year from 2010 to 2020 (a) how many patient care assistants were deployed; (b) what proportion were (i) direct hires and (ii) outsourced respectively; and (c) what was the median salary for the above direct hires and outsourced workers respectively.
There were around 1,160 patient care assistants, also known as healthcare assistants (HCAs), working in the public healthcare institutions1 as at end 2020. Of these, about 10 were outsourced workers. Overall, the number of direct hires for patient care assistants had decreased from approximately 1,710 in 2013 to 1,150 in 2020 and their average monthly salaries had risen by 25% from $1,680 in 2013 to $2,100 in 2020 (see Table 1 for details).
Due to changes in data definition, we are only able to ascertain the number of direct hires and their salaries from 2013 onwards. The public healthcare institutions only have information on the number of outsourced workers deployed as at end 2020 since this is recent. They do not have data on the salaries of outsourced workers who are employed by third-party contractors. Nonetheless, the third-party contractors engaged by our public healthcare institutions are required to abide by the Tripartite Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices to ensure that their staff are remunerated fairly according to the terms and conditions as stated under the Employment Act.
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