By Shukry Rashid
The Labour Movement announced Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Health Dr Lam Pin Min as an advisor to the NTUC U Associate Leaders’ Circle (UALC) on 5 April 2018.
Dr Lam is the third Member of Parliament (MP) to be appointed an advisor to UALC after National Development Minister Lawrence Wong and SMS for Communications and Information and Education Janil Puthucheary were appointed in March 2018.
The UALC is a group of key elected leaders from NTUC U Associate (UA) to foster collaborations and exchange of ideas among all the U Associates.
The appointment was announced during a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between UA and the Singapore Association of Occupational Therapists (SAOT), UA’s 66th partner.
Dr Lam said: “With a rapidly ageing population, Singapore’s healthcare workforce will be a critical enabler in achieving our vision for our citizens to age gracefully in place. We hope more workers and enterprises can seize the opportunity provided by the growing healthcare sector to provide better care and achieve higher productivity. I am happy to work with NTUC U Associate to grow this sector further to meet the needs of Singapore.”
Upgrading the Healthcare Industry
The MOU signing between UA and SAOT comes against a backdrop of growth in the healthcare sector in Singapore.
Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU) President K Thanaletchimi said alliances between the Labour Movement and professionals’ association in the healthcare sector will create value and strengthen the partnerships with the respective healthcare stakeholders, especially the Ministry of Health, public healthcare institutions and the community care sector.
Last September, HSEU and UA formalised a partnership with the Association of Psychotherapists and Counsellors (Singapore) and the Singapore Physiotherapy Association. Since 2016, UA has been partnering HSEU on healthcare-related initiatives that address the skills and job-related issues within the sector.
Ms Thanaletchimi added: “This would benefit our workforce, especially in the training of our current and future healthcare workforce … We hope to work with more U Associates to bring about greater knowledge in community care jobs as well as managing change when transformation is happening so rapidly in this thriving sector.”
Some 9,000 more jobs are projected to be needed to support new facilities and services in public healthcare and community care settings from 2017 to 2019. Various productivity and community initiatives are also in the pipeline to transform the sector into a high-tech, high-touch sector to cater to the rapidly ageing population.
NTUC Assistant Secretary-General and Healthcare Cluster Supervising Lead Patrick Tay said work has already started to prepare the workforce for the future of healthcare according to MOH’s Healthcare Manpower Plan 2020.
He added: “On our part, the Labour Movement has been working closely with our network partners including unions, U Associates, e2i and NTUC Learning Hub, to ensure that our healthcare workers have the right mindsets and are equipped with the necessary skills to keep up with the industry’s transformation.”
Dialogue Session
A dialogue session was also held between Dr Lam and over 40 Labour Movement stakeholders such as unions, UAs and management partners involved in the healthcare sector.
Dr Lam called on the participants to work together to help upgrade the workforce and equip them to handle the challenges of the future.
