Debated in Parliament on 4 Mar 2026.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) what specific factors led to the $0.31 billion projected reduction in the Ministry’s revised FY2025 operating expenditure compared to the initial estimates; and (b) how does the Ministry reconcile lower-than-projected funding needs for public healthcare institutions with the increased care demands of a rapidly ageing population.
Mr Speaker, the reduction in the Ministry of Health's (MOH's) estimated financial year (FY) 2025 operating expenditure of $310 million is about 1.6% of the total initial estimate of $18.8 billion. It is mainly due to lower-than-expected increases in operating costs at the public healthcare clusters and is within an accepted margin of budget variance.
Overall, MOH's operating expenditure maintains an upward trajectory. The revised FY2025 estimate of $18.49 billion is $1.63 billion, or 9.7%, higher than the actual FY2025 operating expenditure. [Please refer to "Clarification by Minister of State for Health", Official Report, 4 March 2026, Vol 96, Issue 24, Correction By Written Statement section.]
The trend of increase will continue, as shown by the estimated FY2026 operating expenditure of $20.04 billion.
Mr Giam.
I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Can I get more clarity on what the operating costs that were lower than expected were?
Mr Speaker, the net decrease comprises many lines of reduction and these include the timing of some decisions. It is an operation, as the Member will know, so there are many different things that could happen. But actually, in total, it partially also offsets increases. So, there will be some decreases, some increases and largely because there are operational demands within the public healthcare institution.
Mr Giam. Mr Giam had another clarification.
Sir, I think I do want to request a bit more clarity on what are the operational costs that went down more than more than expected. Is it due to things like lower take-up rate of salary enhancement schemes or is it because of other aspects that might have led to longer waiting times for patients? Because we would have expected that because of an ageing population, operating costs should have gone up and if anything, it would have exceeded the expectations and the budgeted amounts rather than decrease. So, is patient care compromise in any way because of this?
I can appreciate the Member's concern, Mr Speaker. Some of the information are non-public information with regard to the operations. But Member can be assured that it was not an issue of compromising of care to patients.
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