Harassment and Abuse of Public Healthcare Workers

1 March 2023

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NOTICE PAPER NO. 1767
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 1 MARCH 2023

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang
MP for Nee Soon GRC

Question No. 2787

To ask the Minister for Health for each year in the past five years, of the number of cases of harassment or abuse of public healthcare workers that are reported to the police, how many of the alleged abusers are (i) patients (ii) patients’ family members (iii) non-family acquittances of patients and (iv) colleagues.

Answer

The number of cases of harassment and abuse of public healthcare workers that were reported to the Police, under Section 6 of the Protection from Harassment Act, rose from 40 in 2018 to 99 in 2022.

Based on a recent survey of healthcare workers, about 7 in 10 incidents of abuse or harassment, witnessed or experienced by healthcare workers, were from patients and their caregivers.