MINISTRY OF HEALTH

BG (NS) GEORGE YONG-BOON YEO Minister for Health

The Ministry of Health aims to nurture a healthy nation by promoting good health. It will also ensure that Singaporeans continue to have access to good and affordable basic medical services.

Nurturing A Healthy Nation

2. The Ministry will continue to educate the public to lead healthy lifestyles to reduce the incidence of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. We will conduct annual nation-wide campaigns to encourage Singaporeans to keep fit and to make healthy lifestyle a way of life. We will continue to discourage smoking vigorously, particularly among the youths. We will also promote good mental health so that Singaporeans will have sound minds and healthy bodies.

3. The Ministry will continue its comprehensive disease prevention programme. It will maintain a high immunisation rate against the common childhood diseases and upgrade the health surveillance programme for early detection of physical and developmental abnormalties in children. We will expand health screening to detect and treat diseases early in specific risk groups.

Ensuring Good And Affordable Basic Medical Services

4. We will implement the proposals in the White Paper on Affordable Health Care to contain health care costs and maintain high standards of basic health care.

Extending The Scope Of Medishield

5. We are reviewing Medishield to enlarge its scope and the extent of coverage. We will also allow competing providers to provide more flexibility, higher service standards and greater consumer choice.

Upgrading Hospitals And Primary Health Services

6. Alexandra Hospital will be upgraded by the end of 1994. National University Hospital will expand and introduce Class C beds. The redevelopment of Tan Tock Seng and Kandang Kerbau Hospitals is underway. A new general hospital will be built in the eastern part of Singapore. All hospitals will have at least 65% of Class B2 and C beds.

7. The new Woodbridge Hospital, opened last year, provides better facilities and services to mental patients. We will restructure Woodbridge Hospital to give it more autonomy to improve its services.

8. We will develop specialist medical centres for Cancer and Heart to provide specialised care and improve treatment of patients with cancer and heart diseases. 9. A new polyclinic at Bukit Batok will be ready in 1994. Two new polyclinics will be built at Geylang and Chua Chu Kang. The new Institute of Health and National Dental Centre are under construction and will be completed in 1996.

9. We will continue to expand the Home Nursing Service to meet the needs of the elderly. The Ang Mo Kio Senior Citizens_ Health Care Centre opened last year to provide day care and rehabilitation services for the elderly sick. Other centres will be opened in Woodlands and Geylang within the next two years.

Maintaining High Professional Standards

11. The Ministry will continue to ensure high professional standards in private hospitals and medical clinics through licensing, regulating and auditing of health care establishments. We will set up a Register of specialists under the Medical Registration Act so that specialists are properly accredited. We will introduce legislation to regulate contact lens practitioners to ensure a high standard of contact lens practice in Singapore.

12. We will upgrade the Pharmaceutical Services, Blood Transfusion Services and Forensic Science Services by improving their management systems and by using information technology, so that they can better support hospitals and other institutions.

Achieving Replacement Fertility

13. We will continue to encourage Singaporeans to have three children or more if they can afford it, in order to achieve replacement fertility level. We will monitor the population trends and adjust population policies to meet the manpower needs of the country.

Preparing For The Future

14. The Ministry will study the legislation of countries with living wills to examine how best to introduce similar legislation here.