Service Standards for Emergency Response at Community Care Apartments

Mr Low Wu Yang Andre asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) what system-wide service standards govern Community Care Apartments' 24-hour emergency response, including acknowledgement, welfare contact, physical attendance and escalation after a missed alert; and (b) whether the Ministry will require independent assurance and annual publication of aggregate compliance and incident outcomes.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: First, I am sorry for what happened to the resident involved in this incident. This should not have happened. I can understand the distress this incident would have caused her and her family.

Community Care Apartments (CCAs) provide community and home care support rather than clinical or medical services, and are therefore not regulated under the Healthcare Services Act. The Ministry of Health (MOH) sets out its requirements for the delivery of CCA services through service level agreements (SLAs) with the operators. These include the requirement for a 24/7 emergency response to be delivered in a prompt, efficient and professional manner.

MOH adopts a similar SLA approach with other service providers, such as those providing services at Active Ageing Centres. While Vanguard is a private company under MOH Holdings, it is expected to fully meet its contractual SLA requirements. Where there are breaches of the SLA, MOH deals with Vanguard at an arm's length based on the terms of the agreement, no differently from how other service providers are treated.

Following this incident, MOH directed Vanguard to conduct a formal root cause analysis. Vanguard has almost completed all checks on emergency call buttons in the CCA and engaged an independent consultant to conduct a thorough review of the incident and its emergency response arrangements. MOH will review the full findings when they are available. We will establish what went wrong, including whether there were shortcomings in the equipment, operating procedures, response arrangements or oversight.

Where lapses are established, we will require Vanguard to remedy them and implement the necessary improvement measures. This will include considering whether more specific service standards, additional independent assurance or system-wide reporting requirements are needed. We will strengthen the arrangements where necessary.