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Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms K Thanaletchimi
Nominated MP
Question No. 1849
To ask the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will consider forming an association for intermediate and long-term care institutions that is similar to the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises so that these institutions can collectively benefit from sharing of best practices, standards, staff training and economies of scale.
Oral Reply
1 Institutions providing intermediate and long-term care services can indeed benefit from the sharing of best practices, standards, staff training as well as pooling of resources for better economies of scale. Today, there are already representative bodies that organize such efforts, sometimes in collaboration with MOH and the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC). Examples include the Singapore Hospice Council and the Association of Private Nursing Home Operators. In addition, most of the voluntary welfare organisation (VWO) providers in this sector are members of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). NCSS’ key roles include raising the capabilities of the VWO members and strengthening partnerships among them.
2 These representative bodies are complemented by AIC, which plays the roles of sector developer and coordinator. AIC convenes regular sector-wide platforms to raise the quality of care, build up competencies and facilitate effective practices across the sector. In recent years, AIC has promulgated standards such as the Enhanced Nursing Home Standards and Guidelines for Home and Centre-based Care, and convened industry committees to develop strategies and initiatives in quality improvement and manpower development. AIC has also brought providers together for better economy of scale in areas such as procurement of consumables and organization of transport services, and intends to extend this to new shared services such as security and waste management.
3 The current structures are serving us well. We will continue to assess how we can better promote the interests of the ILTC sector and to raise the level of industry practices and professionalism of ILTC sector workers.