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Nobunaga Oda
Guest
Nurses' pay to be reviewed
By Hetty Musfirah | Posted: 25 July 2011 1524 hrs
SINGAPORE: Health Minister Gan Kim Yong has said his ministry is currently undertaking a review of salaries for nurses in Singapore.
He said this is to make sure salaries remain competitive and to attract more locals into the profession.
Mr Gan was speaking to reporters as he celebrated Nurses Day with nurses from Jurong Health Services on Monday.
He said: "We will have to review the nurses' remuneration as well as the terms of employment, conditions of employment in workplaces.
"We need to take a more comprehensive review - not just about salary - to see how we can lighten their workload, to make sure their workload is more rewarding, and provide more career opportunities.
"As I have mentioned, we already have three career pathways - we will have to see how we can enhance them."
Mr Gan said he hopes that when more locals join the profession, they will be able to take on more important roles and functions in the hospitals.
Stakeholders say any adjustments in salaries are expected to help address the current manpower crunch, even though the sector's attrition rate has gone down from 12 per cent in 2005 to 9 per cent in 2010.
The Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in Jurong, for example, requires about 1,400 nurses when it opens its doors in 2014. But its management has only recruited about 640 nurses so far.
One-in-two of the hospital's nurses are foreigners, while the national average is currently 1-in-5 of 30,000 nurses here.
However, the hospital is optimistic it will be able to make up the shortage and welcomes the salaries review.
Ms Kuttiamal Sundarasan, director of nursing for Alexandra Hospital and Jurong Health Services, said: "These days, our nurses' role (has) expanded and I think it is timely that our nurses' (pay) is being reviewed.
"They want more training opportunities - our locals actually want to be better educated now, they just don't want to stop at diploma, they want to have degrees and masters. So we need to actually publicise and tell them there are plenty of those opportunities."
To address the shortage of nurses, the hospital is also looking into re-employing more older nurses who have reached the age of 62.
Mr Gan said with the re-employment law kicking in next year, hospitals should also further explore how they can retain nurses who retire at 62.
Separately, he said the ministry is also assessing whether some projects need to be brought forward to address the hospital bed crunch.
He said one possibility is to bring forward the completion of Sengkang General Hospital, which is currently slated to open in 2020.
- CNA/al
