Should Singapore do more to help foreign nurses to stay in the country?

SINGAPORE: In response to recent news from the Ministry of Health saying that the median wait time in hospitals has gone up from five hours to 7.2 hours over two weeks, one doctor who wrote to The Straits Times earlier this week said that “More needs to be done to help our foreign nurses stay in Singapore to do their job.”

The MOH said that despite the long wait time, patients begin receiving medical treatment before they are assigned a bed and that a recent uptick in Covid-19 cases has added to the bed shortage.

Writing to ST shortly after it was published, Dr Desmond Wai referred to an emergency department doctor quoted in the piece, which said that the waiting times are caused by a lack of manpower rather than a lack of beds because many nurses from other countries who left during the pandemic did not come back.

“Singapore continues to lose foreign nurses,” he noted.

Dr Wai pointed out that Ms Rahayu Mahzam, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health, said in her speech at the Ministry of Health’s Committee of Supply debate last month that there is an urgent need for adding to Singapore’s nursing manpower.

This is due to foreign nurses choosing to work in other countries as there is greater competition worldwide for healthcare workers, particularly nurses.

The letter writer further quoted her as mentioning that the attrition rate of foreign nurses from 2019 to 2022 went from 9.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent.

He added that foreign nurses, like many in Singapore, have been facing higher rental rates, with some rents increasing by over 50 per cent this year.

“Hospital administrators in both the private and public sector should consider providing financial support for our foreign nurses. If Singapore is not able to retain or attract nurses, the manpower shortage in our healthcare system will not improve.

The current bed crunch is not due to a shortage of infrastructure – there are vacant wards in many hospitals that cannot be used due to insufficient manpower,” wrote Dr Wai.

When his letter was shared on Reddit, many netizens weighed in.

“Let me put it this way. If local nurses (who have family here and mostly don’t have to pay for housing) cannot tahan the low salary, how do you think the foreign nurses will be able to afford the rents? Even mid level PMET are leaving because of the rents, nurse salaries are much lower than that,” wrote one man whose girlfriend is a foreign nurse in a public hospital.

A Reddit user noted that some Singaporean nurses he knows have relocated to Australia.

“There’s no short supply of locals wanting to be nurses. The problem is the work isn’t worth it after experiencing the workload for pitiable pay so they leave,” another chimed in.

“They’ve done everything to attract more local nurses EXCEPT raising nurse’s pay,” one wrote. 

/TISG

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