Effectiveness of Salary Review for Public Sector Doctors

Dr Benedict Tan askedthe Minister for Health whether the latest salary review for public sector doctors has succeeded in (i) stemming the flow of doctors from the public to private sector; and (ii) achieving a consistent remuneration structure across all restructured hospitals and clusters.

The Minister of State for Health (Dr Lam Pin Min)(for the Minister for Health) : MOH plans the training of healthcare manpower in tandem with the development of healthcare infrastructure nationally, including that of the private sector. As doctors are generally trained within the public sector, some of them will eventually join the private sector. Our aim is to retain sufficient good doctors within the public healthcare sector to ensure that we can continue to deliver good quality care to Singaporeans. To achieve this, we not only need to pay our doctors in the public sector competitively, but also provide them with challenging career opportunities spanning clinical service, education, research and leadership.

MOH has worked with the public healthcare institutions to implement a new pay framework for doctors, in two phases in 2012 and 2014. The new pay framework provides better recognition of the important roles that public sector doctors play in the areas of clinical service, education, research and administration. Following the review, our public healthcare institutions are now more aligned in terms of principles and structures of doctors' remuneration while retaining some flexibility to manage individual packages for talent retention purposes.

Beyond pay, the public healthcare sector aims to offer our doctors a fulfilling career that allows them to manage more challenging clinical cases, teach and nurture future generations of doctors, undertake research to improve quality of care and, for some, the opportunities to take up leadership positions in their organisations. Many of these roles are unique to the public sector which the private sector does not typically offer. To support professional and personal growth, public sector doctors also benefit from opportunities for continuing training and development. At the same time, efforts have been undertaken by our public healthcare institutions to improve the work environment for doctors, such as shorter rotating shifts, having protected time for structured learning and the adoption of IT

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to streamline and minimise administrative workload.

I am glad to inform the Member that with the recent changes, the rate of our doctors leaving the public sector has decreased, from 6.5% in 2011 to 5.8% in 2014. The number of doctors working in the public healthcare clusters has also grown by 34%, to close to 6,500 over the same period.

MOH will continue to review and enhance the value proposition of a public service career to attract and retain good doctors in the public sector.