Employment and Deployment Restrictions on Healthcare Professionals Undergoing Investigations for Patient Abuse Charges

Miss Rachel Ong asked the Minister for Health (a) whether there are any restrictions on the employment or deployment of healthcare professionals who are undergoing investigation for charges relating to patient abuse; (b) for each year since 2010, what is the number of healthcare professionals who have been charged for patient abuse; and (c) of these, how many continued to work in the healthcare industry in Singapore.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Ms Rahayu Mahzam) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, under the Healthcare Services Act 2020 (HCSA), all licensed healthcare institutions are required to report any incident or allegations of abuse involving a patient to their management. This includes cases of patient abuse by healthcare professionals.

The licensees must take steps as soon as possible to manage the risk of recurrent abuse. This may include the reassignment of a healthcare professional to non-clinical duties or to require the healthcare professional to take a leave of absence to minimise further patient interactions while investigations are ongoing. The healthcare professional may be further referred to the Police if a criminal offence is likely to have been committed and to the relevant Professional Board for further disciplinary action.

Since 2010, four healthcare professionals have been convicted of offences related to patient abuse. Disciplinary actions were taken in all these cases, including suspension and being struck off the appropriate professional register. Three are no longer practising and one returned to practice after serving a 15-month suspension.