Vacancy Rate for Nursing Positions in Restructured Hospitals

Mr Fadli Fawzi asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) what is the current vacancy rate for nursing positions in restructured hospitals as at end of September 2025; (b) how does this compare with the number of recent local nursing graduates seeking placements; and (c) whether the Ministry has been prioritising the hiring of local nursing graduates before seeking non-resident nurses from overseas.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: In the most recent three months, there were more than 900 nursing job vacancies across public hospitals. That said, current vacancy rate is not a meaningful metric in healthcare, because the system is expanding and we are constantly hiring ahead of demand to fill the positions that are needed when new hospital and healthcare institutions are opened. We are starting to recruit for the new Eastern General Hospital and redevelopment of Alexandra Hospital.

There has been no slowdown of hiring of nurses. Many local nursing graduates join the public healthcare sector and, to date, close to 1,000 are hired by clusters this year, which is similar to the past two years.

Clusters have provided feedback that some job applicants prefer certain work locations or shift patterns, which do not meet the needs of the hiring institutions. We encourage nursing graduates to be open to try a wider variety of work conditions to gain a richer work experience.

We are working towards growing our national healthcare manpower by another 20% by 2030 to support capacity expansion. Local nurses are not enough to fulfil those manpower needs and we, therefore, have to continue to supplement with foreign nurses.