Update on Hospitals' Capacity and Manpower Situation in Managing the COVID 19 Surge

This press release was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on October 08, 2021.

Continued Efforts to Ramp Up Bed Capacity and Healthcare Manpower

A key resource constraint we now face is our healthcare manpower. Our public healthcare institutions and private healthcare providers have redeployed existing staff and recruited additional short-term manpower to ramp-up beds. We are also bringing in more manpower by reaching out to individuals registered with the Singapore Healthcare Corps, including both healthcare professionals and laypersons. We have also approached nurses who are registered with the Singapore Nursing Board but who are currently not in active practice.

The response has been encouraging. About 900 individuals of all ages have stepped forward in response to our call to duty. We are progressively referring them to the public hospitals to match them with suitable roles, based on the institution’s needs and the individual’s experience and availability. The possible deployments vary across institutions and care settings, and include being deployed to the additional COVID-19 facilities that we have stood up, such as the CTFs.

We thank all who have signed up. Those who are interested can visit go.gov.sg/shc-covidops to contribute to our nation’s fight against COVID-19.

Link to full press release: https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/update-on-hospitals-capacity-and-manpower-situation-in-managing-the-covid-19-surge