Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry has plans to expand the network of polyclinics so as to provide greater accessibility and to keep medical costs affordable for residents.

Mr Speaker: Minister, you have limited opportunity to answer.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Sir, today, our primary care landscape comprises both the private General Practitioner (GP) clinics and public polyclinics. The polyclinics play an important role in delivering primary care, especially to the lower income. Through the years, the Ministry of Health has ensured that our polyclinics provide the best care possible for their patients. This includes upgrading our polyclinics and equipping them with the appropriate manpower and equipment to care for their patients. Last year, we completed the upgrading of Choa Chu Kang and Toa Payoh Polyclinics. We will continue to upgrade other polyclinics, such as the Geylang and Tampines Polyclinics, in the coming years.

Even as we upgrade and expand our polyclinics, we are aware that the long-term primary healthcare burden cannot be borne by the polyclinics alone. The more logical and sustainable primary care model is to enhance the partnership between our polyclinics and GPs to provide quality healthcare that is more accessible and affordable for patients. We have more than 2,000 GPs in the community who are located near to their patients and capable of managing patients with both acute and chronic illnesses. Many of them have also taken up postgraduate courses to further enhance their skills and knowledge in Family Medicine. We have now more than 800 doctors with the Masters of Medicine in Family Medicine and the Graduate Diploma in Family Medicine. This is an invaluable resource for the country as we seek to meet the growing healthcare demands of a larger and ageing population.

We are therefore in the process of jointly developing the Primary Care Masterplan with our GP partners to enable GPs to play a bigger role in chronic disease management. To ensure affordability of care when patients see their GPs, we recently announced the enhancement of the Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) which will take effect from early next year. PCPS is a portable subsidy scheme that allows Singaporeans to receive subsidised care at private GPs and dental clinics. The age eligibility criteria will be lowered from 65 years to 40 years while the income cut-off will be raised from $800 to $1,500 per capita monthly household income to enable more Singaporeans to benefit from the scheme.

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Under the draft Primary Care Masterplan, we are proposing new primary care entities to support better management of chronic diseases in the community. For example, GPs can come together to set up Family Medicine Clinics with larger spaces and onsite ancillary support services. Or they may refer their patients for ancillary support services such as nurse educators or diabetic retinal photography at neighbouring Community Health Centres. In addition, we intend to set up medical centres in the community to provide ambulatory procedures, specialists would work with GPs to co-manage patients and enable right-siting of patients from the specialist centres of our acute hospitals. We hope that our efforts in this area will result in much stronger primary care delivery and service for Singaporeans. By leveraging on both our polyclinics and GPs, we can deliver the most appropriate care to patients in the most cost-effective way.

3.00 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time.

[ Pursuant to Standing Order No. 22(3), Written Answers to Question Nos. 18, 21-22, 24-28, 30-33, and 35-36 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix (Pg 699-710). Question Nos.12-17, 19-20, 23, 29,34 and 37 have been postponed to the next available sitting of Parliament. ]

Second Reading Bills