Medical Support for National Athletes

Dr Benedict Tan asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth what is being done to ensure that our national athletes receive adequate medical support, given that the Singapore Sports Institute has been without any full time Sports Physician for the past two years.

Madam, the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) runs a sports medical centre that is supported by visiting sports physicians and consultants, as well as a team of in-house physiotherapists and trainers. In addition, it has tie-ups with three public hospitals – Changi General Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Under these tie-ups, experienced visiting sports physicians provide quality medical support and specialist care to our national athletes.

I agree with the Member that it is important for SSI to have a resident Medical Director to ensure a robust system is in place to oversee the medical needs of our national athletes. Sport Singapore has intensified the search for such a full-time Sports Physician and we hope to find a suitable candidate soon.

Mdm Speaker, I would like to declare my interest. I run two sports medicine centres and I thank the Minister for his reassuring reply.

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I have just one supplementary question. The network that the Minister mentioned has the advantages of bandwidth because it is relying on institutional resources. The disadvantage of that is that it lacks in-house capabilities and we need the in-house capabilities for research that is specific to the national athletes. So, a better solution would be to have both in-house as well as the network capabilities. In relation to that, I would like to ask the Minister if the sports medicine network is the permanent solution or an interim solution and whether the Minister is exploring other options or models.

Madam, I would perhaps first want to emphasise that our assurance to the Member and all our athletes is that we want to do everything we can to provide the best possible and timely medical support to all our national athletes. Any athlete who needs medical care should and will get timely and effective medical care. So, we will find the best possible solution to provide such medical support.

What is the model? I do not think there is a silver bullet. We will have to work through various solutions and it probably will entail a mix of both a good network of partners as well as capabilities in-house. And as I had mentioned, we are continuing to build up and strengthen our capabilities within the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI). We are doing that not just in our search for a resident doctor but also building up our team of physiotherapists and trainers.

Beyond providing medical care, in-house and through the network, the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) Medical Centre is also doing more going upstream, for example, doing more in terms of injury prevention, advising athletes on the steps that they should take to minimise injuries, conducting injury-prevention workshops or, for example, working more closely with the National Sports Associations and the coaches to look at the kinds of training regimes that athletes go through to ensure that they do not over-strain and they take the necessary safety precautions.