GOVERNMENT HOSPITALS (Privatization)
Parliament of Singapore · 13 March 1987 · 6th Parliament
Official Report, 13 March 1987, Vol 49, Issue 2 · Open in the reader (summaries, search, filters)
Dr S. Vasoo asked the Acting Minister for Health (a) if he will give an update of the plans to privatize government hospitals; and (b) whether the plans will take into consideration that health service will still remain affordable to the working class citizens.
The Acting Minister for Health (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Mr Speaker, the Ministry is looking into ways and means to allow Government hospitals to operate more autonomously. The aim is to achieve greater efficiency and economy and, at the same time, ensure a high standard of medical care and service for the general public. Planning has not started yet on the restructuring of any of the Ministry's hospitals into autonomous units.
I would like to assure Members that services in the Government hospitals will remain affordable. No one need fear that he or she will be deprived of medical care because of financial difficulty.
Dr S. Vasoo (Bo Wen): Sir, what cost-control measures are being undertaken by the Ministry to ensure that the cost of hospital services will not go up?
Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: The Ministry undertakes a continual process of vetting the expenditure programmes. This is to ensure that every dollar that has been allocated to the Ministry is spent wisely and efficiently. By aiming to give the hospitals more autonomy, we also hope to achieve greater efficiency, thereby making sure that we continue to get better value for the money spent.
Mr Tang See Chim (Chua Chu Kang): Sir, would the Minister not agree that his cost-control measures in hospital services only result in periodic cost-raising announcements?
Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, as long as Singaporeans expect standards of medical care and service to improve and for the latest developments in medical technology to be made available in Singapore, such expectations must necessarily result in higher costs to the Government. And such greater expenditures must also inevitably result in higher subsidies. The public must therefore expect to pay for a certain portion of these cost increases in order to be able to take advantage of all the latest developments in health care and medical care.
Dr Koh Lam Son (Telok Blangah): Question No. 15, Sir.
Dr Augustine Tan: Supplementary question, Sir.
Mr Speaker: Question No. 15 has already been asked.
Source: Singapore Parliament Official Report (Hansard) for 13 March 1987. Republished on SGParliament.