With Singapore shifting its focus towards preventive and community care, there is a need to increase the number of family physicians and broad-based specialists to provide holistic care to patients especially those with multiple medical ailments. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said although there is still a need to continue building more hospitals and nursing homes focus should be put to "strengthen the community part so there is a balance, so that more patients can be taken care of in the community". The shift was deemed crucial due to Singapore's rapidly ageing population that requires more healthcare services. It is estimated that by 2030, the number of people aged 65 and older will double to 900,000. Restructuring healthcare to address the future population Citing the recent announcement of restructuring public healthcare into three clusters, each with one or more hospitals, a medical school and several polyclinics, provides "stronger infrastructure to allow us to implement some of these shifts in a very decisive way". "Planning has to be done now, some of the pieces have to be put in place now before the ageing challenge hits us. We have a window to do what needs to be done," said Mr Gan. One key shift, is for primary care to play a bigger role, he added. For this to happen, Singapore will need more doctors, regardless if they are from private general practitioner (GP) clinics or government-run polyclinics, Mr Gan said. More family physicians and specialists needed The Ministry of Health (MOH) has been encouraging more primary care doctors to become family physicians, to undergo more training to better care for patients with chronic conditions. MOH plans to add 300 family physicians between last year and next year. Mr Gan said that primary care will play a pivotal role in the reform of Singapore's healthcare model, by reducing the dependence on hospital specialist care or in boosting community care. The MOH will also encourage specialists to take on broad-based specialties especially internal or geriatric medicine. Since 2011 to 2015, 390 such specialists were added with an estimated addition of 317 more between 2016 and 2018. Mr Gan said this was because the elderly tend to develop more than one medical condition, therefore specialists should be available to handle all the illnesses the patient suffers from, to reduce the need for multiple referrals. Preventative care through education and screening Screening efforts will also be improved to ensure a healthier population, reducing the need for hospital care. The Health Promotion Board has been educating and promoting screening to the public. Its expenditure has increased by more than 8% per year for more than five years and is predicted to exceed S$225 million this year. Its latest campaign included collaboration with the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) to increase the minimum amount of time of physical activity that children should spend on. Currently the minimum amount of time is set at 30 minutes; with the new series of recommendations, pre-school children will get at least an hour of physical activity. Source
