Plans to Make Sign-up to Nationwide Health Schemes Compulsory for General Practitioners

Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef asked the Minister for Health whether there are plans to make it compulsory for general practitioners, family medicine practitioners and dental practitioners to enrol into the Chronic Disease Management Programme and Community Health Assist Scheme.

The Minister of State for Health (Dr Lam Pin Min) (for the Minister for Health): Mdm Speaker, since the inception of the Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP) and Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS), there has been a steady increase in the number of clinics participating in both schemes. There are currently about 1,000 CDMP clinics, and 850 GP and 550 dental clinics participating in CHAS. This makes up more than half of all private medical clinics providing primary care, and more than three quarters of all private dental clinics island-wide.

We acknowledge that some providers prefer not to participate in these schemes for various reasons. While the Ministry of Health does not currently have plans to make it compulsory for primary care providers to enrol into the CDMP or CHAS, we strongly encourage primary care providers to join the schemes. This enables Singaporeans to access subsidised care and tap on Medisave at more primary care providers, improving the accessibility of affordable primary care. It also enables our General Practitioners (GPs) and Family Physicians (FPs) to participate more actively in the management of chronic diseases.

There are various on-going publicity and outreach efforts, such as regular road shows and engagement sessions, where interested providers can find out more about the schemes. We will continue to work with the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) to encourage more clinics to participate in CDMP and CHAS.

* *Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef (Marine Parade): Mdm Speaker, can I ask the Minister of State, besides the encouragement and the education that we are doing, are there more proactive steps that we can take to engage these General Practitioners, knowing that the ageing population is a tremendous thing that we are going to be facing in the next few years, and also, knowing that in some estates, we do have maybe just one CHAS or CDMP GP providing care for the whole estate. That seems inadequate. What are some of the proactive steps that we can take?

Dr Lam Pin Min: I would like to thank the Member for the supplementary question. What is important is to find out the exact reasons from the GPs on their reluctance to participate in CDMP and CHAS. Some of these reasons received from the GPs include GPs being satisfied with their own current patient load; some GPs also perceive that the additional administrative burden that comes along with the schemes are quite onerous; some GPs are also quite concerned about the audit process, especially the amount of effort that is needed in the process, such as time needed to retrieve and photocopy relevant documents for the audit; and some GPs are not keen to take on a larger chronic caseload.

Having engaged all these GPs, MOH will continue to streamline and simplify these processes so as to facilitate the GPs and the dental practitioners to take up both schemes.

Mr David Ong: Mdm Speaker, I just would like to ask the Minister of State what is the penetration rate like for GPs participating in CHAS in the HDB heartlands, and whether the Ministry is happy with the current state of affairs.

Dr Lam Pin Min: Based on current statistics, up to about 65% GP clinics are on the CDMP and 55% of GPs are on CHAS.

Ms Tin Pei Ling (Marine Parade): Mdm Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of State, is there a timeline that MOH is looking at or a milestone kind of timeline in terms of getting these GPs onboard. Just as hon Member Assoc Prof Fatimah had said, it is very important that we promote this because we are having an ageing population, and a lot of elderly residents have given us feedback that they really hope that there will be more GP clinics that are accessible to them, and where they can at the same time, enjoy the subsidies that the Government has been offering readily?

Dr Lam Pin Min: I would like to thank Ms Tin for the supplementary question. We do not have any timelines currently, but having said that, we are quite encouraged by the take-up rate from the GPs as well as the dental practitioners over the past one to two years. MOH will continue to put in effort to engage these practitioners so that we can increase the take-up rate as much as possible.