NURSING HOMES FOR AGED SICK AND ELDERLY

NURSING HOMES FOR AGED SICK AND ELDERLY

39.

Mr Sin Boon Ann asked the Minister for Health what are the steps taken by the Government to ensure that our nursing homes meet the necessary standards for the aged sick and the elderly who reside in these homes to live in relative comfort and dignity.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: In Singapore, there are 63 nursing homes, run either by private companies or voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs). We regulate them through a licensing regime.

MOH’s evaluation of licensing eligibility focuses on two key aspects:

The nursing home will need to have written policies and procedures that meet various statutory requirements, including for infection control, fire safety and medicine storage. The facility will need to be in a good state of repair. MOH also considers the adequacy of the facility in ensuring patient comfort and in supporting proper treatment. Beds will need to be sufficiently spaced apart. Sanitary facilities will need to be easily accessible and slip-resistant. There are various other infrastructure requirements, including resident-to-nurse communication system, isolation beds and bed screening facilities.

MOH also considers the track record of the applicant. The licensing process ensures that applicants have adequate staff capacity and capabilities to provide long-term nursing care. As part of the licensing requirements for quality assurance, nursing home operators are required to monitor and maintain the quality and appropriateness of their services and care.

After the licence has been granted, MOH conducts regular audits and require licence renewals every two years.

Besides regulation, MOH works closely with the operators to further strengthen their capacity and capabilities. We regard them as our partners, as we share a common objective to ensure a robust long term care sector that can meet the needs and expectation of our seniors. Hence, we organise regular forums and programmes to promote the sharing of knowledge and experience among the service providers. We also provide funding support to enable the nursing homes to purchase consultancy services from hospitals to raise their professional standard. MOH also organises manpower development programmes to promote advanced skills training among healthcare professionals, care staff and healthcare administrators. These programmes will equip the staff with necessary skills in infection control, performance monitoring and performance management.

Raising the standard of nursing home care is a continuous endeavour. We have nursing homes that are competently run but there is scope for further improvement. And we will try to help our nursing homes up the skill sets so that they can help our seniors recover as quickly and as fully as possible.

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