SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISION (Sessional Paper No. Cmd. 34 of 1958)

12.04 p.m.

The Financial Secretary (Mr T. M. Hart): Sir, I have His Excellency the Governor's authority to move,

That this Assembly resolves that the sum of $415,138 shall be supplied to the Government under the heads of expenditure and for the services specified in the Schedule contained in Sessional Paper No. Cmd. 34 of 1958.

The reasons for the various applications are explained in the Sessional Paper but I should like to take this opportunity to make some additional comments.

With regard to item 191 which is for Aircraft Services, I should explain that in so far as Malayan Airways Limited are concerned, this refers to duty on petrol uplifted for other than scheduled flights, that is for testing engines on the ground, for test flights within the boundaries of Singapore, and so on. Duty is charged on such petrol at the time of uplift. Remission of duty is made on the authority of the Minister and is paid from this vote. Petrol uplifted for flights outside the boundaries of Singapore, that is for scheduled or international flights, is issued free of duty under the agreement with the company and by arrangement with the Customs and the oil company, and the question of repayment of duty does not arise.

With regard to item 196 which is in connection with the conversion of a ward at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, it may be asked why, with so many cases of tuberculosis disclosed by the recent survey, a ward at Tan Tock Seng Hospital should be converted into a hostel for Assistant Nurses. In the first place. Sir, there is a serious shortage of Assistant Nurses for tuberculosis work. Recruitment and training is a matter of top priority. Recruitment will be difficult in any case but training will be impossible unless accommodation can be found within the hospital compound. When the development plans for Tan Tock Seng Hospital were implemented, perhaps too much emphasis was placed on ward accommodation due, no doubt, to the fact that standard plans were available and wards could be built in groups with some ease. As a result, the present position is that we have adequate ward accommodation but no hostel accommodation to cater for the urgent need for Assistant Nurses. In the circumstances, Sir, the most sensible thing to do is to convert one of the existing wards, which is at present standing vacant, into a temporary Nurses Hostel, particularly as this can be done very quickly and at comparatively little cost. This does not mean, Sir, that we shall be short of ward accommodation for tuberculosis cases. In the first place, hon. Members will be glad to hear that the results of the recent survey were much more favourable than had been hoped. Only one per cent of the cases brought to light require hospitalization. To meet this demand, 300 beds have been made available at Woodbridge Hospital where improvements in treatment techniques for mental ailments have resulted in a spectacular reduction in the number of patients. Chronic cases will be accommodated there. The accommodation at Tan Tock Seng Hospital should be quite adequate to cater for the acute cases.

Sir, I beg to move.

Inche Mohamed Sidik Bin Haji Abdul Hamid: I second it.

Motion committed to Committee of Supply.

Motion and Schedule considered in Committee of Supply.

[Mr SPEAKER in the Chair]

12.09 p.m.

Inche Mohamed Sidik Bin Haji Abdul Hamid: Schedule-

The Chairman: The summary is at page 9.

Head 8-

The sum of $199,450 for Head 8 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 17-

The sum of $15,045 for Head 17 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 22-

The sum of $61,375 for Head 22 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 34-

The sum of $5,039 for Head 34 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 48-

The sum of $10 for Head 48 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 54-

The sum of $28,534 for Head 54 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 9-

Question proposed,

"That the sum of $1,979 for Head 9 stand part of the Schedule."

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, the sum of $1,979 is in respect of two vans: one for the Directorate and Administration and the other for the Engineering Division of the Broadcasting Department. I notice that the amounts voted for both are identical: "Amount voted in 1957 ... $4,750; Amount spent up to 31-12-57 ... $3,576; Outstanding balance ... $1,174"; and then for some curious reason the unforeseen revote is $1 less in the case of the Directorate and Administration van as against the Engineering Division van. I should have thought that the engineers would have been more clever at saving the extra dollar.

Mr Hart: I regret that I cannot offer an explanation without reference to my file..

Question put, and agreed to.

The sum of $1,979 for Head 9 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head 45-

The sum of $99,936 for Head 45 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head D 48-

Question proposed,

"That the sum of $62,000 for Head D 48 stand part of the Schedule."

Mr John Ede: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Hon. the Financial Secretary has informed us almost casually that, as a result of the investigation into T.B. in a recent survey, only one per cent of the cases have been found to be actively infectious and require hospitalization. That is a matter of profound interest to Singapore and perhaps he could elaborate on that a little more, because, if there is a cutting down of hospital beds for T.B. cases, one assumes that the Government will be providing better facilities for domiciliary treatment for cases not requiring hospitalization. That is a question on which I would like an assurance that home treatment or domiciliary treatment is going to be better looked after than in the past.

On the other point which was mentioned, that 300 beds in Woodbridge Hospital are being provided for T.B. patients, one would like to know whether this means that there will be congestion or lack of sufficient facilities for mental patients in the Woodbridge Hospital.

While we understand the need for training more nurses at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, there are two important issues involved in this.

12.15 p.m.

The Minister for Health (Mr A. J. Braga): On the question of the domiciliary nurses, I can give an assurance that that is so.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: What is so?

Mr Braga: That better facilities are being provided for the domiciliary nursing by the Ministry; and with regard to the question of Woodbridge Hospital, there is no question of any exceptional congestion in the number of beds.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, can I have that repeated slowly and clearly, because I could not follow what he said?

The Chairman: I think that will appear in our Hansard.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Sir, I do not mean that the Minister was inaudible but the meaning was not clear and I would be obliged if he would state clearly what exactly he intended to say in reply.

The Chairman: Will the hon. Member then ask a question as to what he wants to know?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Like the Member for Tanglin, I share his anxiety about the shortage of accommodation for domiciliary nursing in Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Woodbridge Hospital, and I would like to know the categorical answer to that anxiety.

Mr Braga: I thought I had already answered.

Mr John Ede: Perhaps the Minister would be kind enough to enlighten the House on exactly what steps are being taken to increase the nurses for domiciliary treatment and what numbers are involved. We are told that hospitalization cases are down to one per cent but it is generally known - subject to correction - that the number of infectious cases of tuberculosis are in the neighbourhood of five or six per cent, unless the survey has shown something very different indeed. There is only one per cent of them to be hospitalized and the balance have to be looked after by domiciliary treatment through nurses, provided by the Ministry of Health, going into the homes and seeing that the patients are under proper care.

Mr Braga: I think the Hon, the Financial Secretary has already indicated that one per cent of tuberculosis cases require hospitalization. Now those requiring domiciliary treatment and not hospitalization are looked after not only by the domiciliary nurses but also as out-patients. There is no overcrowding of mental patients in the Woodbridge Hospital.

Mr John Ede: That does not answer my question. The question I am asking him to answer is this. I am quite satisfied with the interesting statement of the Hon. the Financial Secretary that only one per cent of infectious cases of T.B. require hospitalization. This is something revolutionary which we have not heard of in Singapore before today and, it being a fact, so far as we know, that there are five per cent cases of tuberculosis in Singapore, what is happening to the four per cent? It is not a question of over-crowding at the hospital. It is what new facilities are being provided by the Ministry of Health to provide nurses so that those who are not hospitalized are treated at home and are properly treated.

Mr Braga: I have already answered that.

Question put, and agreed to.

The sum of $62,000 for Head D 48 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head D 59-

The sum of $19,626 for Head D 59 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head D 45-

The sum of $41,246 for Head D 45 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

Head D 56-

The sum of $29,900 for Head D 56 ordered to stand part of the Schedule.

The sum of $415,138 for the Heads of Expenditure and for the services specified in the Schedule ordered to stand part of the motion.

Motion and Schedule reported, without amendment.

Question on the Motion put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this Assembly resolves that the sum of $415,138 shall be supplied to the Government under the heads of expenditure and for the services specified in the Schedule contained in Sessional Paper No. Cmd. 34 of 1958.

Mr Speaker: I think this is a convenient time to suspend. I will take the Chair again at half-past two.

Sitting accordingly suspended at 12.20 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. Sitting resumed at 2.30 p.m.