Opening Address by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Health, at the Singapore Healthcare Management Congress 2018, 14 August 2018

Mr Peter Seah, Chairman, SingHealth

Professor Ivy Ng, Group CEO, SingHealth

Professor Lily Kong, Provost, Singapore Management University

Mr Tan Jack Thian, Organising Chairman of the Singapore Healthcare Management Congress 2018

Distinguished guests 

Delegates

Ladies and gentlemen

1.    Let me first of all greet all of you a very good morning. Indeed, I am pleased to join you here for the Singapore Healthcare Management Congress. I see familiar faces from the healthcare family gathered here today. It is always a pleasure to meet all of you. To our guests from abroad, a very warm welcome to Singapore, and I hope that you will have the most fruitful and enjoyable time here.

MEETING CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE

2.    As the needs of our population change, we are continually faced with new challenges, and have to adapt to meet these challenges. In Singapore, we have an ageing population and correspondingly, a growing demand on healthcare services. While we work to ensure that our healthcare system continues to provide Singaporeans with good care, we need to find ways to keep it affordable and sustainable.

3.    To meet this challenge, the Ministry of Health is transforming our healthcare system by making three shifts: (i) beyond hospital to community; (ii) beyond healthcare to health; and (iii) beyond quality to value. We want to bring healthcare closer to home and support Singaporeans to age well in their community. We want to support Singaporeans to make healthy lifestyle choices, and lead healthier lives. And we want our people to get good healthcare at the best, affordable value.

4.    As we seek to do all these with a limited resident labour force, we recognise that we need to change the way we deliver healthcare and the way we work.

CHANGING THE WAY WE DELIVER HEALTHCARE

5.    This means that we will have to rethink what healthcare should provide, and how care is delivered. We need to shift beyond providing care for those who are ill or seeking care at clinics and hospitals, to improving the health of Singaporeans. Our focus should be on overall well-being, disease prevention, and empowering individuals to choose healthier lifestyles.

6.    At the systems level, we have reorganised public healthcare services into three clusters to better coordinate the provision of services along the care continuum – primary, acute, intermediate and long-term care. This will enable patients to get the right care at the right time more easily.

7.    In ensuring that patients have a smooth and holistic experience when receiving care, I would like to highlight the critical roles that administrators play. Being key partners to clinical professionals, administrators are in a unique position to identify outcomes that matter to patients, collaborate with professionals to pioneer new care models, and manage enterprise risks in innovation.

8.    Healthcare administrators at the Singapore General Hospital demonstrated this when they embarked on a three-month pilot service in January this year. Called ‘Drop and Go’, the service aims to create more convenience for patients and reduce waiting time at payment counters. ‘Drop and Go’ allows patients to leave the specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) after their consultation and make payment through through SingHealth’s electronic payment portal or various other electronic means such as AXS machines. To-date, the service has been used at about 36,000 patient visits. Following the successful pilot at six SOCs, the service has since been rolled out to all 22 SOCs and the project team is looking at introducing ‘Drop and Go’ at the outpatient pharmacy and radiology department. 

CHANGING THE WAY WE WORK

9.    At the individual level, we will need to relook what our patients need, and examine how we can help healthcare staff work better as they provide care. The innovative use of technology has helped our staff to provide care for patients more efficiently. SingHealth’s online patient portal, Admissions Buddy, is a case in point. Through the portal, patients can see their estimated bill size prior to a planned surgery, allowing them to make informed financial decisions, such as the use of Medisave, MediShield Life or other insurance, as well as choice of hospital wards. Using the same portal, they can also request for a change in ward type or pay their initial deposit directly online. This has reduced patients’ wait time for financial counselling over the counter. To further enhance efficiencies, an electronic admission form system was also developed to harmonise and do away with the different hardcopy admissions forms used by the various institutions. This has resulted in about 50% time-savings and gives staff more time with patients, especially our elderly, who prefer a face-to-face session. Admissions Buddy is currently available to patients from Singapore General Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital and National Heart Centre Singapore, and will be made available on the national HealthHub platform in the latter half of FY2018.

10.    While we should continue to leverage technology to improve healthcare delivery and augment our workforce, it is also important to examine how our work processes can be improved to deliver better care for patients. We are enhancing job scopes and training to enable healthcare staff to strengthen the depth and breadth of their skills, to provide both career development and capability building to take on improved work processes.

11.    In terms of depth, SingHealth will be partnering Singapore Management University (SMU) in its Health Economics and Management programme, to develop industry-ready graduates who are well-versed in healthcare administration. The collaboration is the first of its kind in Singapore, and I am indeed pleased to be witnessing the signing of the MOU today.

12.    Under the MOU, starting January next year, SingHealth and SMU will co-train the university’s undergraduates in areas that are of increasing importance in the healthcare sector. These include Health Systems and Policy, Applied Analytics in Healthcare Management, Operations and Supply Chain Management as well as Medical Sociology. Beyond the classroom setting, students will undergo internships at SingHealth’s healthcare institutions, giving them the opportunity to observe what they have learnt being applied in practice and acquire valuable hands-on experience. Such collaborations are important as we nurture the next generation of healthcare administrators and equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle the nation’s future healthcare challenges.

13.    To expand the breadth of skills, I think we can learn from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH)’s example when it redesigned the roles of Patient Service Associates (PSAs) and upgraded their skills. This allowed our PSAs to have a more meaningful career by expanding their job scope beyond supporting hospital operations and administration. Experienced PSAs are now trained to perform clinical tasks such as venepuncture, and uroflowmetry, tasks traditionally undertaken by nurses and phlebotomists. At the same time, these professional staff are then also able to dedicate more time to complex cases.

CLOSING

14.    All of us can play a part to create a safe and supportive culture to encourage the generation, testing and implementation of new ideas. We need an innovative workforce to meet and solve the challenges we face in healthcare today and those that will confront us in the future. Let us proactively think of new ways to improve our delivery of healthcare and the way we work. I would like to encourage all congress participants to tap on this platform to connect with others, ask questions, brainstorm and exchange ideas, and to apply the lessons shared during this congress to your organisation as well as your work context. Together, we can bring better health, better care and better life for our citizens. Thank you and have a most fruitful meeting.