SINGAPORE: While Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in Parliament on Tuesday (Jan 9) that nine out of 10 healthcare workers have received the COVID-19 Resilience Medal, those who haven’t may write an appeal to the Ministry of Health.
Mr Ong said this in a written reply to a number of MPs who had posed questions on the matter. Last month, an anonymous group of healthcare workers who had served on the frontlines during the pandemic said they had been left out of the awardees honoured with the COVID-19 Resilience Medals.
The minister told Parliament that 91 per cent of the 68,600 workers in the country’s public healthcare institutions had received the medal, adding that about 2,000 outsourced workers, such as cleaners and porters, had been nominated for and had also received the medal.
However, a “very small number” of healthcare workers were disqualified because of their disciplinary records. As the medal is “a national-level award, individuals with criminal records and public service officers with disciplinary records and within the debarment periods are also disqualified,” noted the Health Minister.
Mr Ong also said, however, that those who did not get the award had not contributed “substantially or on a sustained basis” to address the pandemic within the specified period of contribution.
As for those who feel that they deserve the medal, they can “write to MOH, and we will review their appeals with their employers accordingly.”
Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) had asked whether MOH would consider a channel for appeal by individuals who missed out on receiving the medal.
Other MPs, including Mr Yip Hon Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang) and Dr Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong), as well as Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Leong Mun Wai, also asked questions related to the issue.
Two days after the letter from the healthcare group was published over social media, a statement from MOH in response to it was published in TODAY.
The ministry said its approach to awarding the medals had been as inclusive as possible, acknowledging that not everyone who had been part of the effort had received the medal.
Mr Ong also invited the group members to come forward so that their cases could be looked into. /TISG