24th Feb 2021
Dr Tan Wu Meng
MP for Jurong GRC
Question No. 486
To ask the Minister for Health at public healthcare institutions in each year from 2010 to 2020 (a) how many patient care assistants were deployed; (b) what proportion were (i) direct hires and (ii) outsourced respectively; and (c) what was the median salary for the above direct hires and outsourced workers respectively.
Written Answer
1 There were around 1,160 patient care assistants, also known as healthcare assistants (HCAs), working in the public healthcare institutions1 as at end 2020. Of these, about 10 were outsourced workers. Overall, the number of direct hires for patient care assistants had decreased from approximately 1,710 in 2013 to 1,150 in 2020 and their average monthly salaries had risen by 25% from $1,680 in 2013 to $2,100 in 2020 (see Table 1 for details).
Table 1: Overall number of FTE for directly hired patient care assistants and average monthly base salary for local direct hires (2013 to 2020)
|
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
|
|
Number of Staff 2 |
1,710 |
1,910 |
2,140 |
1,850 |
1,960 |
1,170 |
1,140 |
1,150 |
|
Average monthly base salary3 (Local staff only) |
$1,680 |
$1,750 |
$1,790 |
$1,930 |
$2,030 |
$2,000 |
$2,040 |
$2,100 |
2. Due to changes in data definition, we are only able to ascertain the number of direct hires and their salaries from 2013 onwards. The public healthcare institutions only have information on the number of outsourced workers deployed as at end 2020 since this is recent. They do not have data on the salaries of outsourced workers who are employed by third-party contractors. Nonetheless, the third-party contractors engaged by our public healthcare institutions are required to abide by the Tripartite Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices to ensure that their staff are remunerated fairly according to the terms and conditions as stated under the Employment Act.
1Includes acute hospitals, specialty and medical centres, as well as polyclinics.
2 Data in terms of Full-Time Equivalents rounded to the nearest 10, based on submissions from the public healthcare institutions as of end December each year.
3The monthly base salaries exclude the annual wage supplement, bonuses and also variable allowances payable to the staff. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 dollars.