MEDICAL AND DENTAL OFFICERS: CONSULTATION FEES, AND ALLOWANCES

Mr Seah Peng Chuan asked the Minister for Health why Government medical and dental officers will be prohibited, from 1st September, 1958, from drawing fees or retaining consultation fees hitherto allowed under the Fees (Public Officers) Regulations, 1951.

Mr A. J. Braga: The system of payment of fees under the Fees Regulations has not proved altogether satisfactory. Its worst feature has been the disproportionate range of earnings in the various specialities although the standard of qualification and the length of training for the various special branches are much the same, and Government does not consider that it is proper that a civil servant should be advantageously placed to earn fees as a direct result of being supplied with a suitable establishment, suitable equipment and suitable ancillary and subordinate staff - all at the expense of public funds.

Furthermore, the system of payment of specialist fees has been abolished in a number of other territories including the United Kingdom, Hongkong, Nigeria and Ceylon.

It was for these reasons that Government felt that the system should be reviewed and that it should appropriately be considered by a Committee of Inquiry. This Committee was set up on the 28th June, 1957, with the following terms of reference:-

"In order to maintain high professional and teaching standards in the Government Medical Service, to enquire into and make recommendations regarding the desirability, or otherwise, of paying an allowance or allowances to officers having specialist post-graduate qualifications who hold specialist superscale appointments in the Government Medical Service. If the recommendation is that any such allowance or allowances should be paid-

(a) to recommend what amount or amounts should be payable; and

(b) whether such allowance or allowances should be paid to Government medical officers with specialist qualifications who are appointed to posts not requiring specialist qualifications."

The Committee of Inquiry invited representations from relevant sources and, after examining such representations made to it during the enquiry, considered that specialists in all categories - including clinical, non-clinical and administrative officers - should be paid varying rates of allowance, which it called a "merit allowance".

Medical and Dental officers holding administrative posts in the Medical Service had previously been allowed to draw or retain consultation fees. In recommending allowances to these officers the importance and need of attracting specialist officers to undertake administrative duties, such as the superintendence of hospitals, was fully realised.

After careful consideration of the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry, Government accepted the principle of paying varying allowances to officers filling superscale posts substantively and holding specialist qualifications and to the payment of such allowances to officers while filling administrative appointments.