Desperate times call for desperate measures!!!
Many health-workers in Singapore resigned during the current pandemic due to being overworked. Malaysia is also not without such concerning situation. Doctors and nurses here are also overworked.
Due to insufficient manpower, a desperate private hospital in Singapore in dire need for nurses has resorted to a finder’s fee of up to $12,000 (RM36,000) for staff who can find an experienced nurse to join.
If you are only able to bring in a fresh graduate nurse, then you will be given finder’s fee of up to $3,600 (RM11,130).
Apparently for the first time in 2 decades, Singapore is experiencing a dip in the number of nurses. Last year there was a total of 42,096 nurses and out of which 1/3rd of them are foreigners.
Singapore has reported 2,079 new COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday noon (November 24). So there are more patients than resources. A private sector nurse wrote in her blog Desperate and Distraught that the staff are stretched paper thin.
Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary told Parliament earlier this month:
“About 1,500 healthcare workers have resigned in the first half of 2021, compared to about 2,000 annually pre-pandemic.
Foreign healthcare workers have also resigned in bigger numbers, especially when they are unable to travel to see their families back home.
Close to 500 foreign doctors and nurses have resigned in the first half of 2021, as compared to around 500 in the whole of 2020.”
Besides this finder’s fee initiative, Singapore’s Ministry of Health has introduced other initiatives such as:
- recruiting “basic care assistants” to take over the more basic aspects of patient care
- recruiting “care ambassadors” to handle non-clinical work
- offering temporary registration for foreign-trained nurses to augment the local workforce.
Do you think Malaysia should learn from these initiatives or can we do better? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
Also read: Malaysian Nurse Working in Singapore Cries As She Reunites With Family After 2 Years
